Online media predictably broke off about Oumuamua and Harvard scientists

 
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“Scientists do not hesitate to publish absurd ideas” 3–3–33. 3r361.  
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As an artist, he imagines a strangely shaped interstellar asteroid 1I /Oumuamua 3r361.  
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A few days ago, 3r315 appeared on the network. preprint
a research paper intended for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. This paper describes an unusual object known as Oumamamoy , found at the end of 2017 - the first of the interstellar objects found in the solar system. 3r361.  
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Scientists are still not sure what a strange-shaped cigar-shaped object is, and they were even more surprised to learn that it is accelerating as it moves from the Sun. Based on the analysis of data from several telescopes aimed at this object, the scientists found out that Oumuamua accelerates when moving from the Sun much more than can be explained by gravity alone. Unfortunately, scientists did not have a good explanation for this acceleration. 3r361.  
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The new paper studies the possibility of pressure caused by the radiation of the sun, or the transfer of momentum from photons hitting the object. This radiation pressure is the basis of the idea of ​​a “solar sail,” which someday may become the engine of a spacecraft exploring the Solar System or going beyond its limits. 3r361.  
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Much of the research conducted by Schmuel Bayeli and Abraham Lowb of Harvard University is devoted to discussing the shape and mass of an object on which radiation pressure can have a sufficient effect to explain Oumuamua's movement and the nature of the associated natural processes. But at the end of their work, the authors suggested a “more exotic scenario”, according to which Oumuamua could be “a working probe, specially sent to the alien Earth near civilization”. 3r361.  
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Catnip

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And some media have jumped at this last line from the article. Statements of this kind, especially those emanating from such a source as Harvard scientists, attract editors of online publications, like catnip, with their ability to use such words as “mysterious cigar-shaped object”, “aliens” and “Harvard scientists” in one title. 3r361.  
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As a result, we are faced with a huge number of hypertrophied articles. NBC News reports: "Scientists say that the mysterious object of Oumuamua may be an alien spacecraft." Fox News: "A mysterious interstellar object can be a sun sail sent by another civilization." CNN: "The work of Harvard scientists argues that a cigar-shaped interstellar object could be an alien probe." It is enough to google "Oumuamua" to assess what is happening. 3r361.  
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This, of course, quite sloppy coverage of events. But in this case most of the articles are written not by trained authors specializing in science, but by online reporters who have noticed the potential of a bright headline. And although this is not “false news,” it is still a classic click trap. 3r361.  
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But there is something else. Katie Mack, astrophysicist and amateur comment on the actions of scientists and the media, 3r-353. tagged on Twitter
that Harvard scientists knew what they were doing. “You need to understand that scientists do not hesitate to publish absurd ideas, if there is even a fraction of the likelihood that they will be right,” she writes. “But until all other possibilities are exhausted many times, even the authors themselves probably will not believe in it.” 3r361.  
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“Some scientists are more conservative than others,” she continues. - And it all depends on the field of research. But in my field (astrophysics and cosmology) there are usually no obstacles to publishing something a) interesting enough and b) not completely ruled out because of the impossibility, regardless of whether this is the “correct answer” or not ” . 3r361.  
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In other words, a researcher who wants to generate a wave of articles in the media can play the card “I, of course, do not claim that they are aliens ” 3r370.