What is its size and how is it determined it did not come from our solar sys tem?
Visitor from another star
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Dec 15, 2017
0
#3
The eccentricity of its path is 1.2 which is hyperbolic (i.e. not bound). If it was just above 1 it could have been in orbit and accidentally accelerated by going near a planet, but it is impossible for it to be accelerated as much as this.
The size is 230 m by 35 m.
They say it is dense, but I cannot see any way they could detect that directly without assuming it is solid: its gravity is insignificant.
The shape is very, very odd and a big mystery to be solved.
Having been discovered in October as the first of its kind, there are already plans to send a spacecraft to intercept it in 5-10 years to get close-up data on it. This is feasible, apparently. I hope they do!
alright!
Elroch, YOU are usually the one to rain on my "it might be aliens" parade. If you think this has even a teeny tiny bit of alien potential I'm more excited than usual!
Dec 18, 2017
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#5
Here's an article about a planned mission to rendezvous with it. This would need to be the fastest spacecraft ever launched by humans (about twice as fast as the Voyager probes).
https://phys.org/news/2017-11-lyra-mission-interstellar-asteroid.html
More of the very odd facts.
(1) Of all the directions in the sky, it appears to have come from the direction of the brightest star visible from Earth
(2) it just happened to be on a path which sent it nearer to the Sun than Mercury (almost a bullseye!).
Jan 30, 2018
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#8
This remains fascinating. I hope they are able to send a mission. The clock is ticking...
May 13, 2018
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#9
Firstly, only crass dullards use the word "retarded" as an insult.
Secondly, by contrast the authors of the paper are clearly highly intelligent, and recognise the scientific interest in examining material from outside the solar system. This is analogous to the series of excellent missions that have gathered information from comets, until now the material with the most distant origin that humans have been able to study.
[It must have been in a different forum that I posted research that proposed an explanation of the uniquely strange shape of the asteroid. This was a real mystery at first. By a strange co-incidence it was published on the same day as post #3 here: Explaining the Elongated Shape of 'Oumuamua by the Eikonal Abrasion Model ].
May 15, 2018
0
#10
You are a very poor fit for this group. I suggest you find somewhere trolls are more welcome.
The first detected interstellar asteroid is very intriguing. It can hardly be a coincidence that the most elongated asteroid every detected - possibly by a factor of 2 - happens to be the first asteroid to have come from outside the solar system. But it is difficult to imagine natural conditions which would cause cigar shaped objects of that size to be formed.
Apparently it's a nice rusty red colour. Probably not very like the spaceship of the successful scifi comedy "Red Dwarf" though.