The Solar System is currently being visited by an interstellar asteroid.
This is the first time we’ve seen an asteroid that did not originate in our Solar System.
The interstellar asteroid, known as 1I/ 2017 U1 or Oumuamua, has most likely been travelling
for hundreds of thousands of years, possibly millions even billions of years.
It raises interesting concepts such as this asteroid being artificial or alien made as
well as plans for future missions to study and orbit it, but before we discuss those,
let’s first discuss a little background information.
It was discovered on October 19th, and ever since then it has grabbed the attention of
nearly every telescope around the globe to make observations.
These observations have revealed surprising aspects of the asteroid.
For one thing, its trajectory and speed indicate that it travelled and originated from outside
our solar system and, according to observations, its thought that it approached the Solar System
from the constellation Lyra.
Its hyperbolic curve and trajectory indicate that it’s not gravitationally bound to the
Sun, meaning that it will eventually leave the Solar System.
By May of 2018, it will have travelled farther than Jupiter and get past Saturn in early
2019.
In 11,000 years it will be a light year from the Sun.
What’s even more surprising though is its shape.
Oumuamua is unusually long and narrow for an asteroid, being about 400 metres in length
while being only about 40 metres in width.
Its very peculiar shape has never been seen before in any asteroid in our Solar System.
During its time here in the Solar System, it has reached a top speed of 87 km/s and
rotates once every 7.3 hours.
It has went through some of the inner planets orbits, however poses no risk as it leaves
the Solar System.
Astronomers have confirmed that it has similar composition to rocky bodies in the Solar System,
which suggests that the formation process of these bodies is very similar across other
Solar Systems.
It has been discussed that Oumuamua could be artificial or alien made, but when discussing
explanations for such events or objects, aliens is the last resort, it’s never aliens!
The same thing happened with KIC 8462852, or Tabby’s star.
Although it’s a very small chance, there is enough evidence that makes you stop and
consider it, even just for a second.
The shape, for instance, has never been seen before in the Solar System.
It’s dimensions, being 10 to 1 longer than it is wide, are questionably elongated.
Furthermore, nature tends to create asteroids of a somewhat rounded shape whereas this is
a cigar shape.
If you were going to design a hidden asteroid-spacecraft, this is probably the way to do it.
So did aliens send this asteroid in our direction to spy on an upcoming technologically advanced
civilization?
Probably not.
The asteroid is travelling pretty fast compared to our fastest spacecrafts in history however
it would still take tens of thousands of years just to travel a light year, so an alien civilization
would probably not have waited that long to spy on us.
We’re fairly certain that Oumuamua has been travelling for a very long time.
It would have taken it 600,000 years to reach the Solar System from Vega.
It’s probable that it’s been travelling for a long time because we know that it’s
not gravitationally bound to the sun and are fairly sure that it formed in another solar
system.
As it’s rotating rapidly, it has to be pretty solid.
Its spin, or more appropriately named wild tumble, is not too common, however is possible.
Getting ejected from a solar system would be able to do that, or it’s possible that
a collision of some sort sent it tumbling uncontrollably.
Before Oumuamua leaves the Solar System, it would be brilliant to study it up close with
a spacecraft orbiting it, possibly similar to the Rosetta mission back in 2014.
Unfortunately, forming a mission with a rocket and equipment takes a long time, a few years
at the very least.
By the time we form a mission and a rocket, Oumuamua would be well on its way and become
pretty unreachable.
Right now, it’s moving 26 km/s away from the Solar System.
That’s faster than any spacecraft sent on an escape velocity from the Solar System.
Nevertheless, a group of rocket scientists proposed Project Lyra: a mission to catch
up and go in orbit around Oumuamua.
If the mission was launched in 2018, with a velocity of 26.75 km/s, it would take about
20 years to arrive at the asteroid.
That sounds fantastic.
However, the reality is that it’s very unlikely that a mission could begin so fast.
Realistically it would take 5 to 10 years for a mission to form, in which case the spacecraft
would have to be travelling at quite a fast speed in order to catch up in a reasonable
time.
To be honest, although it is possible, it’s not that good of an idea to catch up with
Oumuamua and is not really worth the investment.
It’s a much better idea to have a spacecraft ready for the next interstellar asteroid that
enters the Solar System.
It is slightly annoying that we’ve had so little time to study this object, but interstellar
asteroids are probably a common phenomenon in solar systems.
And like detecting gravitational waves for the first time, this is just the first of
many interstellar asteroids to come.
Comment down below your thoughts on Oumuamua.
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