The story of our first probable interstellar visitor from another star system has been
rapidly evolving since I made my last video on the subject, links to both video updates
in the end screen and description below for those looking for the backstory.
The first development is that it now officially has a new designation and a name and much
to my disappointment, they did not name it Rama.
Instead, the new designation for the object is 1I/2017 U1, denoting the nature of the
object as the first identified interstellar asteroid, and the official name is ‘Oumuamua.
Now, I know that may not be easy to pronounce, but there is a somewhat elegant reasoning
for it.
The word is Hawaiian, and I’m told means something along the lines of a visitor from
afar who is first, or a scout.
The reason a Hawaiian name was chosen was because the Pan-STARRS telescope that discovered
the object is on top of the Haleakala volcano on Maui.
All of that having been said, evidence continues to mount that it is indeed of interstellar
origin, though the matter is not yet completely settled.
Part of the problem there is that we don’t really know what other planets, such as planet
nine and ten, might lurk far out in the outer solar system.
In a paper by Jean Schneider, links to all materials in the description below, it is
laid out that planet nine probably is not involved and the object really is interstellar,
but who knows what else is out there.
We also know a bit more about the physical characteristics of the object.
And, oddly enough, it’s not really that surprising.
One aspect is that it appears to be extremely elongated, and possibly might be two objects
orbiting or even touching each other held together loosely by gravity.
Also, we know more about its color now, in another paper by Michele Bannister and colleagues,
they lay out that the object is similar in appearance to our own Kuiper belt objects,
in other words reddish.
It should not be surprising that interstellar objects would look similar to objects in our
own solar system, but to really study it in detail and learn about the conditions in which
it formed, you need to know more about its composition.
For various reasons this is difficult to do with this object, which led to a somewhat
exciting proposition known as Project Lyra.
In the comments sections of the previous videos on this topic there was a common thread, people
wondered if we could intercept this object and study it up close.
You weren’t the only ones thinking this, in yet another paper by Andreas Hein and colleagues,
they take this question on directly.
And, the answer is that we do have options.
All of them are a bit extreme to say the least, but if we worked fast, within 5-10 years it
could be done.
This first option is straightforward and familiar.
You use a rocket, such as the upcoming Space Launch System, or SpaceX’s BFR concept to
boost the probe into space.
Then you use gravity assist to accelerate the probe to the speeds needed reach the object.
How this would be done depends on the rocket used, but if the BFR is used you would essentially
only need to have Jupiter sling the spacecraft towards the sun in what is known as a solar
fryby.
The probe then passes very close to the sun and is sent out at blazing speeds to catch
up with the asteroid.
The timeframe for this would a launch date around 2025, reaching the object between the
years 2039 and 2051, again depending on what launch system you are using, what flybys are
needed and so on.
Once there, we could employ an impactor, something we’ve done before when studying comets,
and blow material off the surface of the object and study it with spectrometers.
This is merely the most straightforward method of doing it however using technologies and
techniques we are already using.
But there are other alternatives, such as microprobes propelled by solar sails and lasers
in the grain of Project Starshot, and even a concept of using Jupiter’s magnetic field
to propel tiny probes to very high velocity.
So yes, it is possible, in principle, to catch up to and study 1I/2017 U1, but another problem
faces all options.
You have to get to the asteroid within a reasonable amount of time, which means you need to go
fast.
So once you get there, you have to slow down to study the asteroid and not blow past it,
which itself is mind bending since the asteroid is moving very fast.
That would be difficult, but certainly not impossible and all of this does lie within
our technological capabilities.
We’d need to act fast on this plan as a whole, but not so fast as to be unreasonable
and the timeframes involved aren’t extreme.
I hope we do it, this object is on its way out of this solar system and is not coming
back, so we should try to learn as much about it as we can about it.
But in the end, the ideal thing to do with an object like this is to take samples from
it for direct study.
That is probably a bridge too far with this object, but in the future as we branch out
into the solar system other objects like this should pass through, and perhaps some have
already been captured by objects such as Jupiter in our own solar system, there are candidates
for that.
That leaves open a host of possibilities for studying our galaxy from the comforts of our
own solar system by directly studying the surfaces of these objects.
While a number of origins have been advanced for 1I/2017 U1, one of them is that the object
has been wandering the galaxy for billions of years.
In fact, it’s now thought that about 1.3 million years ago it might have passed through
the Oort cloud of the star TYC 4742-1027-1.
I wonder what such an ancient object might have picked up in its journeys?
Thanks for listening!
I am futurist and science fiction author John Michael Godier currently eyeing ‘Oumuamua
suspiciously again, what might be in store for it in the future?
Will it someday pass through another inhabited star system to be studied by aliens?
Will they have ample warning of it’s passing in the form of a swarm of human microprobes
blasting through their star system at breakneck speed having accidentally overshot the mark
millions of years before.
I think there would be much snickering by the aliens and be sure to check out my books
at your favorite online book retailer and subscribe to my channel for regular, in-depth
explorations into the interesting, weird and unknown aspects of this amazing universe in
which we live.