Scientists are exploring the universe and searching for objects. But this year, one of the objects decided to explore us. On October 19, the Pan-STARRS 1 (Hawaii) telescope captured a faint light band. Researcher Rob Virik realized that he was seeing a trajectory, and the object itself arrived from outside our system. It turned out we met a “messenger” from an alien star.
But what is it? The mysterious celestial body was named Oumuamua, and its elongated shape resembled a bizarre spacecraft. Later they suggested that this is an elongated rocky asteroid. But now there is an assumption that we have an ice body covered with a protective crust of organic chemicals.
Radio telescopes carefully listened to the object and did not reveal any artificial signals. The trajectory also shows that it moves only because of gravity. But here lies a mystery. If a piece of ice is approaching the Sun, then it must create a pulling comet tail. However, this did not happen as they approached. Why did he behave like an asteroid?
Scientists quickly responded to the arrival using the Very Large Telescope (Chile) and the Herschel telescope (La Palma), with which they monitored the body for 48 hours. They decided to measure the ability of Oumuamua to reflect sunlight. This method allows you to understand the composition.
October 29 Oumamaua watched Herschel telescope The information showed that the surface was red in visible light, but in the IR it looked neutral or gray. Previous experiments have noted that this can be observed with cometary ice and dust. Cosmic rays dry the surface and remove ice. These particles also cause chemical reactions in the rest of the material with the formation of bark from chemical organic compounds.
In addition, a red rocky surface could appear after a lonely journey between the stars. Gemini telescope showed that the color resembles trans-Neptunian objects rotating on the edge of our system.
Where did you come from?
Where did Oumuamua come from? There is an assumption based on the creation of planets. They consist of smaller rocky asteroids and ice comets. However, trillions of objects drifted into interstellar space, and some even escaped beyond the Oort cloud.
If other systems behave like ours, then in the interstellar space there should be a lot of such celestial rocks. But you can see them only with modern technology. Scientists have found that the path of a particular object can not be traced to a particular star.
Oumuamua has already flown through the Martian orbit and is moving out through the asteroid belt. In the winter, find the Great Square of Pegasus and be able to spot our guest.
