Interstellar visitor detected!

[barbos]

Among the strangest things about the object is its bizarre, elongated shape, estimated to be some ten times as long as it is wide. Spinning on its axis every 7.3 hours, its extreme brightness variations are unlike any known asteroid or comet from our own solar system

Does look like a spaceship.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Among the strangest things about the object is its bizarre, elongated shape, estimated to be some ten times as long as it is wide. Spinning on its axis every 7.3 hours, its extreme brightness variations are unlike any known asteroid or comet from our own solar system

Does look like a spaceship.

It probably is a space ship. Talk about ideal camouflage.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Could a scout ship for the new Interstellar Freeway.

 

[Treedbear]

This thing is bizarre. I'm surprised no cult has claimed it yet.

Bizarre Interstellar Asteroid Is Unlike Any Observed In Solar System

`Oumuamua seems to be a dark red highly-elongated metallic or rocky object, about 400 meters long, and is unlike anything normally found in the Solar System.

Although such interstellar objects are thought to visit our solar system about once a year, it’s only been since next generation survey telescopes like Pan-STARRs have come online that astronomers have had a chance to spot them.

So it looks like we'll have fairly frequent opportunities when technology permits. 85,000 mph and outside of the ecliptic will be a challenge. And a possible source of national pride for whoever wants to be the first. My money's on the Japanese.

 

[repoman]

The Japanese have a very mixed record on space probes. Not gonna happen.

 

[Treedbear]

The Japanese have a very mixed record on space probes. Not gonna happen.

Well the Hayabusa mission landed on and returned a sample from an asteroid in 2010. NASA isn't scheduled to do so until 2023.

Japan has been a major player in the sample-return sphere as well. The nation launched its Hayabusa probe in 2003 to collect material from a space rock called Itokawa. Things didn't go entirely as planned, but Hayabusa did succeed in getting some tiny Itokawa grains to Earth in 2010.

In December 2014, Japan launched Hayabusa 2, which is scheduled to arrive at the space rock Ryugu in 2018 and return samples in 2020. (Ryugu, incidentally, was one of five asteroids on the OSIRIS-REx team's target short list.)

 

[fast]

We have never directly observed an object that we knew came from outside our solar system.

When you say that, I can't help but wonder what the catch is. Should one of those words be accentuated? Directly? Observed? Object? Knew? I mean, is there some philosophical baggage undermining what a layman might think you mean?

 

[skepticalbip]

We have never directly observed an object that we knew came from outside our solar system.

When you say that, I can't help but wonder what the catch is. Should one of those words be accentuated? Directly? Observed? Object? Knew? I mean, is there some philosophical baggage undermining what a layman might think you mean?

I think the word would be "knew". We may well have an image of an extra-solar system object on one or more of the many, many observation exposures that have been made that no one has ever payed any serious attention to. However, this is apparently the first that has been identified as moving at a speed relative to the sun that exceeds the sun's escape velocity.

 

[4321lynx]

Could a scout ship for the new Interstellar Freeway.

I am surprised no one has recognised it for what it so obviously is ---- a fragment of Thor's hammer.

 

[Speakpigeon]

We have never directly observed an object that we knew came from outside our solar system.

When you say that, I can't help but wonder what the catch is. Should one of those words be accentuated? Directly? Observed? Object? Knew? I mean, is there some philosophical baggage undermining what a layman might think you mean?

Yes, you're absolutely right.

And, personally, I can directly look at (observe) stars and Andromeda, a galaxy, with my naked eyes on a clear night.

Stars already are outside our solar system, though not outside our galaxy, but Andromeda is way out there at 2.5 million light-years out of our own galaxy.

And keep in mind that if you see a star or a galaxy it's because energy deep into these very hot bodies made its way, through the immensity of space, until it could impress you very eyes. So, it's a direct connection between you and these far away things. So it's true you can be physically transformed by something that's coming from stars, or a galaxy, just by looking at the night sky by a clear night.

Not bad, right?
EB

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Could a scout ship for the new Interstellar Freeway.

I am surprised no one has recognised it for what it so obviously is ---- a fragment of Thor's hammer.

But it's shaped so much like a crystal. Gotta be from Krypton. No doubt Jor-El is doing a bit of time traveling, maybe wants to meet his long lost son.

 

[Jokodo]

Among the strangest things about the object is its bizarre, elongated shape, estimated to be some ten times as long as it is wide. Spinning on its axis every 7.3 hours, its extreme brightness variations are unlike any known asteroid or comet from our own solar system

Does look like a spaceship.

A *very* slow spaceship. Cruising at a velocity relative to the solar systam that's almost exactly the typical relative velocity of nearby stars.

 

[Jokodo]

We have never directly observed an object that we knew came from outside our solar system.

When you say that, I can't help but wonder what the catch is. Should one of those words be accentuated? Directly? Observed? Object? Knew? I mean, is there some philosophical baggage undermining what a layman might think you mean?

I think the word would be "knew". We may well have an image of an extra-solar system object on one or more of the many, many observation exposures that have been made that no one has ever payed any serious attention to. However, this is apparently the first that has been identified as moving at a speed relative to the sun that exceeds the sun's escape velocity.

Plus, some comets *might* be of extrasolar origin (but have been diverted into an elliptical orbit by a close encounter with one of the gas giants - probably Jupiter - on their first passage). I believe this has explicitly been speculated for some comets with unusual compositions. But in those cases we just don't know.

 

[Speakpigeon]

Still, I understand this thing is going to sneak inside the Mercury orbit, something which must have a relatively low probability compared to just sneaking inside Jupiter's orbit for example. It's like narrowly targeting the sun's immediate neighbourhood from very, very, very far away. How spooky is that?
EB

 

[Jokodo]

Still, I understand this thing is going to sneak inside the Mercury orbit, something which must have a relatively low probability compared to just sneaking inside Jupiter's orbit for example. It's like narrowly targeting the sun's immediate neighbourhood from very, very, very far away. How spooky is that?
EB

With our current technology, we have basically no hope of detecting an object like this if it barely sneaks inside of Jupiter's orbit. So for all we know, there are 180 or more such objects doing this for every one that sneaks inside Mercury's orbit.

 

[Speakpigeon]

With our current technology, we have basically no hope of detecting an object like this if it barely sneaks inside of Jupiter's orbit. So for all we know, there are 180 or more such objects doing this for every one that sneaks inside Mercury's orbit.

Yes, that's what I assumed although this will have to be confirmed by future observations.

And this thing is going out now and nothing bad happened for all we know.

We should feel reasonably safe now.
EB

 

[DBT]

 

[Jokodo]

It seems his little cousin has already arrived millions of years ago and we never knew:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016703717307962?via=ihub

Well, not quite. For all we know, the stone as such formed in the Kuiper belt, but it appears to contain dust particles of extrasolar origin.

Here's another discussion: https://phys.org/news/2018-01-extra-terrestrial-hypatia-stone-rattles-solar.html

 

[lpetrich]

Petrography of the carbonaceous, diamond-bearing stone “Hypatia” from southwest Egypt: A contribution to the debate on its origin - ScienceDirect
Extra-terrestrial Hypatia stone rattles solar system status quo

The authors suspect that it came from some distant part of the Solar System, unlike where most meteorites come from: the asteroid belt. There are some Martian and lunar meteorites, but both celestial bodies are nearer to us than the asteroid belt.