One way to better determine whether Oumuamua is natural or artificial is to go take a look. Breakthough’s mission should become America’s mission. Now this isn’t a trillion-dollar ask. Loeb estimates that the cost of an Alpha Centauri mission, pricer than chasing down Oumuamua, would be similar to that of big science projects such as CERN and the James Webb Space Telescope, the planned 2021 successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. So figure $10 billion to $13 billion, give or take. That’s a lot less than the Apollo mission but pretty pricey when compared to NASA’s current $21 billion budget. And that tab would be in addition to the new moon and Mars missions, which are already facing budget issues.

But it’s something America can easily afford if we choose to. Finding life, much less intelligent life that could build an interstellar probe, would be the greatest-ever scientific discovery. It would also help future presidential candidates freshen up those ads.