CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) – The first known interstellar visitor to our solar system is not a comet or an asteroid as first suspected, and does not look like a cigar.
According to a new study, the mysterious object is probably a remnant of a Pluto-like world and shaped like a cookie.
Astronomers at Arizona State University reported this week that the 45-meter (45-meter) strange object resembling frozen nitrogen, like the surface of the largest moon Triton of Pluto and Neptune.
The study’s authors, Alan Jackson and Steven Desch, think an impact knocked off an icy nitrogen-covered planet 500 million years ago and caused the piece to tumble out of its own galaxy.
It is believed that the reddish remnant is a piece of its original self; its outer layers are vaporized by cosmic radiation and more recently by the sun. It was named Oumuamua, Hawaiian for Scouts, in honor of the Hawaii Observatory, which discovered it in 2017.
It was only visible as a point of light millions of miles away at its nearest approach, and was determined that it originated outside our solar system, because the speed and path indicate that it does not orbit the sun or anything else.
The only other object confirmed that we have strayed from another galaxy is Comet 21 / Borisov, which was discovered in 2019.
But what is Oumuamua? It does not fit into known categories – it looks like an asteroid, but speeds like a comet. Unlike a comet, it does not have a visible tail. Speculation has been swirling back and forth between comets and asteroids – and it has even been suggested that it may be an alien artifact.
“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 in a statement. “But it’s important in science not to come to conclusions.”
Using its luster, size, and shape – and that it is fueled by escaping substances that do not have a visible tail – Jackson and Desch devised computer models that helped them determine that Oumuamua was probably a piece of nitrogen ice that was gradually be defended. a bar of soap diluted with use.
Their two papers were published by the American Geophysical Union on Tuesday and also presented at the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference, which is usually held in Houston but is virtual this year.
Not all scientists buy the new explanation. Avi Loeb, Harvard University, disputes the findings and stands by his premise that the object looks more artificial than natural – in other words, something from a strange civilization, perhaps a light sail. His recently published book “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” deals with the subject.
“Because Oumuamua is different from comets and asteroids – and something that has not been seen before – ‘we can not accept’ things as usual ‘, as many scientists claim,” Loeb wrote in an email on Wednesday. we ‘consider something we have not seen before’, we must lay the hypothesis of artificial origin on the table and gather more evidence on objects of the same class. ‘
When Oumuamua was the closest approximation of the earth, it seemed to be six times its thickness. These are the rough ratios of one wafer of an Oreo cookie, Desch noted.
It is now over, off the orbit of Uranus, more than 3 billion kilometers (3.2 billion kilometers) away – and far too small to be seen, not even by the Hubble Space Telescope. As a result, astronomers will have to rely on the original observations and hopefully continue to refine their analyzes, Jackson said.
By the time the object begins to leave our solar system around 2040, the width-to-thickness ratio, according to Desch, would have dropped to 10 to 1.
“Maybe Oumuamua was in line with a cookie when we saw it, but will soon be literally as flat as a pancake,” Desch said in an email.
This is how the cosmic cookie crumbles.
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