Scientists at the University of Hawaii’s Pan STARRS Observatory caught a glimpse of an object ascending through our inner solar system in late 2017.which moved so fast it could only have come from another star. He was baptized as ‘Oumuamua (messenger who comes from far and arrives first), and some theories have been written about its origin.

It was not possible to obtain an image or data on its composition, but the calculations allow us to estimate that the object was flattened. It had a reddish surface, with an abruptly shifting glow and streaks across the cosmos in a chaotic trajectory.

Some astronomers said it could be an asteroid, or maybe a comet. For his part, Avi Loeb, astronomer and professor of theoretical physics at Harvard University, published a study suggesting That ‘Oumuamua could be a probe sent by an alien civilization, or the remains of an artifact created by aliens.

The study subsequently caused great controversy and criticism from several well-known scientists.

Strange orbit of the interstellar object

Now astronomers from Berkeley and Cornell Universities have found a surprisingly simple explanation for the strange orbit of the interstellar object they call a comet.

After being described, this object was found to be accelerating away from the sun in a way that astronomers could not explain. This detail, along with its lack of a clear coma or dust tail, its peculiar elongated shape, and its small size, led some to suggest that it was an alien spacecraft.

The researchers now argue that the comet’s mysterious deviations from its hyperbolic orbit around the sun could be explained by a simple physical mechanism common to many icy comets: the outgassing of hydrogen as the comet heats up in sunlight, they report in the journal magazine. Nature.

What set ‘Oumuamua apart from every other well-studied comet in our solar system was its size: It was so small that its gravitational deflection around the sun was slightly altered by the small push created when hydrogen gas erupted from the ice.

When it was discovered, ‘Oumuamua had neither a coma nor a tail and was too small and too far from the sun to absorb enough energy to expel much water, leading astronomers to speculate wildly about its composition and making it was pushed out.

Jennifer Bergner, assistant professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley, he thought there might be a simpler explanation. He raised the issue with a colleague, Darryl Seligman, now a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University. Together they decided to team up to put it to the test and see if it was possible that the comet was releasing hydrogen as it warmed up as it entered the solar system and that would produce the force needed to explain the non-gravitational acceleration . .

They found that experimental research published since the 1970s showed just that When the ice is hit by high-energy particles similar to cosmic rays, molecular hydrogen (H2) is produced and trapped in the ice in abundance. “Because ‘Oumuamua was so small, we think it produced enough force to accomplish this acceleration,” the study said.

The comet is believed to have measured about 115 by 111 by 19 meters, but astronomers couldn’t be sure of its actual size because it was too small and too distant for telescopes to resolve.

‘Oumuamua was the first interstellar object, other than dust particles, ever seen in our solar system. A second similar object, Comet 2I/Borisov, was discovered in 2019, although it looked and behaved more like a typical comet.

In 2014, an interstellar meteorite collided with Earth, now scientists are going to search for it in the ocean

They suggest a possible curious origin of ‘Oumuamua: they are not the remains of a ship, but of a planet

As more telescopes focused on ‘Oumuamua, astronomers were able to track its orbit and find that it had already gone around the sun and left the solar system.

Because its brightness changed periodically by a factor of 12 and varied asymmetrically, it was assumed to be very elongated and twisted from one end to the other.