In this image, Oumuamua looks a bit like a meaty Millennium Falcon, but it may be a remnant of a Pluto-like planet.
William Hartmann
Ever since Oumuamua visited us, the first interstellar object we found wanders through our solar system, scientists are fascinated by it. It’s a strange cosmic wanderer – so strange that some scientists do even postulated, it could be a piece of alien technology (although there is no real evidence of this.)
A new theory, appearing in two articles published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets on Tuesday, claims that the strange object may be a piece of a Pluto-like planet that came out of its solar system about 400 million years ago was blown. .
“This research is exciting because we have probably solved the mystery of what Oumuamua is,” said Steven Desch, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University and co-author of the new studies. “We can reasonably identify it as a piece of an ‘exo-Pluto’, a Pluto-like planet in another solar system.”
Oumuamua (Hawaiian for “scout” or “messenger”) was discovered in 2017 while it rounded the sun on its way out of our solar system. It was observed in October and November 2017 before disappearing into the dark.
And it was weird.
It showed strange behavior. Observations suggested it was cigar-shaped, and as it rounded the sun, it gathered a large amount of speed – more than expected – without showing any signs of gas escaping, a sign of a comet.
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Desch and co-author Alan Jackson believe that a collision between two cosmic bodies in another planetary system somewhere in space half a billion years ago caused an explosive emission of nitrogen ice. A pancake-shaped block was thrown out of his house and into space between planetary systems.
In the freezing depths of the cosmos, this solid nitrogen block will wander and be slowly torn away by the radiation. As it enters our solar system and approaches the sun, the nitrogen becomes hot, giving it a slight increase in speed, while also creating the cigar shape that the earth observers have noticed. Jackson says the heating would have flattened the object, just as a soap’s outer layers are rubbed off during use.
This is a neat explanation that takes into account all the oddities of Oumuamua, and it’s an exciting hypothesis because it suggests that Oumuamua is the first piece of an exoplanet to visit our solar system.
Oumuamua’s reflection also coincided with what astronomers observed on Pluto and on Neptune’s moon Triton, which is rich in nitrogen. In a distant young solar system, where bodies are constantly bumping into each other, it is reasonable to think that pieces are being thrown through space for a wild ride and that we happen to see one pass by.
“We reasoned that it was possible that there could be Plutos in other solar systems with nitrogen ice on their surfaces, and a piece of it could have entered our solar system and explained everything we saw,” Desch said.
And that, he said, puts a damper on the strange spacecraft theory.
“Everyone is interested in aliens, and it was inevitable that this first object outside the solar system would make people think of aliens,” Desch said. “But it’s important in science not to come to conclusions.”
So far, scientists have discovered only two interstellar objects. The second, 2I / Borisov, was found in late 2019 and in comparison was quite ordinary. It was almost certainly a comet, but it surprised scientists with some unique features.
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