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The first known object to enter our solar system from deep space

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Re: The first known object to enter our solar system from deep space

#61

Post by JshWright »

pqh wrote: post #56
nkurz wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it is the only chance we have ever had to directly view a largeish piece of another solar system, just millions of miles away. The next time probably won't come until we send a probe to Proxima Centauri. While this is the only one we've seen so far, the current belief is that similar objects might actually quite common. A parallel newspaper article in the Guardian [1] cites a paper out of UCLA [2], and works thro…

Would it still be travelling too fast to be captured if it hit the sun directly?

It would cease to exist in that case...

Re: The first known object to enter our solar system from deep space

#63

Post by macintux »

pqh wrote: post #56
nkurz wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it is the only chance we have ever had to directly view a largeish piece of another solar system, just millions of miles away. The next time probably won't come until we send a probe to Proxima Centauri. While this is the only one we've seen so far, the current belief is that similar objects might actually quite common. A parallel newspaper article in the Guardian [1] cites a paper out of UCLA [2], and works thro…

Would it still be travelling too fast to be captured if it hit the sun directly?

Is something technically captured by a gravity well if it just happens to hit the object at the center? I assume not.

Re: The first known object to enter our solar system from deep space

#64

Post by bdamm »

laydn wrote: post #42
Cal___ wrote: post #4

I think it's a shame that this story hasn't gotten more attention. True, it doesn't tell us as much about the nature of the universe as the discovery of the Higgs boson, and it doesn't represent a major advance in engineering like gravitational wave detection. But it is the only chance we have ever had to directly view a largeish piece of another solar system, just millions of miles away. The next time probably won't…

Could this be the first of a series of "objects" to come our way? Part of a large ejection of some sort?

While considering the exotic, how about a test of our response time? We didn’t see it until it was past us.

Re: The first known object to enter our solar system from deep space

#66

Post by dzdt »

ldenneau wrote: post #32
tehwalrus wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- strange aspect ratio - tensile strength (it should be cartwheeling, there is a physics theorem which means everything tends to this configuration) - large flat or concave sections. - others are reporting it's mostly metallic. I'll say it: did anyone consider an alien spaceship? The paper seems to deduce "asteroidal" by ruling out other things, rather than by a positive measurement of rock spectra, unless I've misre…

Co-author here. We obtained spectroscopic measurements of 'Oumuamua, and its surface closely matches D-type asteroids and comet nuclei, which are dark, reddish and organic-rich.

Too bad we don't have a radar image! It would have been awesome to see the shape of this in Arecibo hi resolution dopler/delay.

Re: The first known object to enter our solar system from deep space

#67

Post by nkoren »

ldenneau wrote: post #32
tehwalrus wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- strange aspect ratio - tensile strength (it should be cartwheeling, there is a physics theorem which means everything tends to this configuration) - large flat or concave sections. - others are reporting it's mostly metallic. I'll say it: did anyone consider an alien spaceship? The paper seems to deduce "asteroidal" by ruling out other things, rather than by a positive measurement of rock spectra, unless I've misre…

Co-author here. We obtained spectroscopic measurements of 'Oumuamua, and its surface closely matches D-type asteroids and comet nuclei, which are dark, reddish and organic-rich.

The spectroscopy seems pretty normal, but the shape is kinda freaking me out. If there were a single other object we'd ever seen which looks like this, that'd be different. But this seems really unique.

Is there a point where you, as a sober professional, start to entertain outlandish theories about something like this? Has this crossed that threshold?

Re: The first known object to enter our solar system from deep space

#68

Post by ceejayoz »

wallace_f wrote: post #50
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course an asteroid, hollowed out somewhat, makes for a good spaceship. Especially if you're trying to be covert. Perhaps someone has discovered warp drives (is gravitational wave detection the first step) and the Federation have sent a ship to observe us.

If you wanted to disguise a probe, it seems the ideal form would be a black body, not to disguise it as an asteroid, I would guess. Unless they're playing mind games. Anyways, given all the EM radiation we're tossing out into the void, some species' probe out there is going to pick up our existence sooner or later. And at ~395 earth-moon distances it's difficult to imagine how effective a 400-meter object, disguised…

> And at ~395 earth-moon distances it's difficult to imagine how effective a 400-meter object, disguised as an asteroid, would be at seeing much detail on earth.

Ah, but it's a carrier for the small, stealthy probes!

Re: The first known object to enter our solar system from deep space

#69

Post by PokemonNoGo »

Very interesting! So all known "stuff floating around in our solarsystem" like Hale-Bopp et al have been deemed originating from here? Or have that conclusion just been taken for granted?

Edit:

Looked at the paper and saw this in the abstract:

>None of the approximately 750,000 known asteroids and comets is thought to have originated outside our Solar System, but formation models suggest that orbital migration of the giant planets ejected a large fraction of the original planetesimals into interstellar space1.

Very interesting that this has been the thought of affairs for objects in our solar system. I have never contemplated it and just assumed we must have been visited before by such objects.

Re: The first known object to enter our solar system from deep space

#70

Post by marcosscriven »

PokemonNoGo wrote: post #69

Very interesting! So all known "stuff floating around in our solarsystem" like Hale-Bopp et al have been deemed originating from here? Or have that conclusion just been taken for granted? Edit: Looked at the paper and saw this in the abstract: >None of the approximately 750,000 known asteroids and comets is thought to have originated outside our Solar System, but formation models suggest that orbital migration of the…

It’s apparently to do with the orbit - they identified this as extrasolar purely by the fact its orbit would be extremely unlikely to have arisen from our solar system’s protoplanetary disk.
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