I think you're talking about a configuration known as "eater," a still life in 6-8 cells. If the glider hits the right spot, the eater will form a bridge and destroy the glider while undergoing little change before reverting.

Thus, a natural question, apparently proposed very early, was whether there exists a still life (i.e. period 1 oscillator) that reflects a glider.

I haven't tested yet, but I expect hlife to win by a very large margin since the puffer train has lots of still life and blinkers to make Gosper's algorithm look good, and hlife's low-level implementation is quite good at handling the more random parts.

Still life

Meaning

Noun

Synonyms