That speed doesn't dampen the enthusiasm of some who want to catch up to these interstellar objects, though. The efficiency with which the survey images the whole sky is extremely important for such fast-moving objects, as the whole observing window of 'Oumuamua in the solar system was only a few weeks. Pan-STARRS, as the project is called, can also see extremely faint objects such as 'Oumuamua. Luu points out that, for the first time in human history, we have a systematic sky survey that provides high-quality images of the whole sky every two to three days. Luckily, observing such interstellar visitors is going to become much more common in the near future. It has shown the process of fragmentation that could have formed the seed for 'Oumuamua. Borisov is definitely a comet, and possibly originally had a long period in its original solar. One example of a long-period comet that might have formed a fractal entered the solar system not long after 'Oumuamua. But if a fractal managed to form from a short period comet, radiation pressure will eventually break any feeble gravitational bond and send the fractal off into interstellar space, never to rejoin its cometary birthplace. Most short-period comets have much reduced activity due to their many close approaches to their star, and so would most likely not have enough material needed to form a fractal like 'Oumuamua. Credit: Jane Luu et allĪs the parent comet was likely an Oort cloud comet, also known as a "long-period" comet, the fractal would most likely be on an escape trajectory, heading out of the stellar system. The paper posits the idea that 'Oumuamua formed as a " fractal" in the coma of an extrasolar Oort cloud comet.Įxample of the how dust from a comet might accumulate into a fractal in the tail of a comet. Jane Luu and her colleagues at the University of Oslo in a new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. That explanation was recently put forward by Dr. As with any scientific theory that involves intelligent aliens, there was probably a more likely explanation. One particularly novel theory was that it was an intelligently designed light sail. The unique shape and extremely low density prompted a flurry of speculation in the scientific community about how the object might have formed. However, in order for sunlight to be able to accelerate an object, its density would have to be extremely low. Another possible cause of this non-gravitational acceleration is radiation pressure, a force exerted by sunlight on the object. However, it is not the only interesting theory that 'Oumuamua's acceleration has spawned. Credit: Josh Spradling / The Planetary Society While an interesting concept, there is no evidence to support this theory so far.Īn illustration of Light Sail 2, a human-made light sail, with its solar sails deployed. Such an object could actually be turned into a type of natural ion engine as it approaches a star. One possible explanation for the acceleration is that the object itself is made entirely of solid hydrogen. 'Oumuamua also had another interesting characteristic-it was accelerating faster than can be explained by gravity. However, there is the possibility that it is, in fact, more disc-like, as the dimension of depth was unobserved as it passed through our solar system. The commonly seen artist's rendering depicts the body as a cigar shape. One of the strangest things about 'Oumuamua, the first object detected and confirmed to come from outside the solar system, is its shape. That is what scientists think our first detected visitor from another star might be-an interstellar dust bunny. And instead of being made out of skin and spider webs, it could be made up of cometary dust particles. Though it's still not alive, it would be blown by solar radiation rather than the winds. Now, take that same concept of a bunch of particles stuck together, scale it up a few orders of magnitude, and put it in space.
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