Jan 25, 2022 01:24 AM
https://www.space.com/oumuamua-first-int...re-mystery
EXCERPTS: . . . 'Oumuamua is perhaps the strangest object we have ever seen inside the solar system. No other known asteroid or comet has a shape that extreme (although, to be fair, our catalog of objects 100 meters or larger isn't exactly complete). 'Oumuamua has a dusty red color, which is similar to the hues of other deep-solar system objects. But it didn't act like a comet, the most common small object at those distances from the sun.
The interstellar visitor entered the solar system with a velocity very close to the local standard of rest, which is the average velocity of stars in our neighborhood. However, most of those stars have individual velocities much higher than that. So why should 'Oumuamua have something very close to the average number? It remains a mystery.
Lastly, on its way out of the solar system, 'Oumuamua gave astronomers one more giant mystery: It appeared to be accelerating, moving away from the sun at a slightly faster pace with every passing day. This wouldn't be the weirdest thing for comets, which can have abnormal acceleration profiles due to outgassing of materials. But observations of 'Oumuamua revealed no such activity.
In the years since the original discovery, only one other interstellar visitor has been spotted. And that object, called 2I/Borisov, looked and acted like any other comet. Nothing like 'Oumuamua has ever been seen before or since.
So what is 'Oumuamua? The debate continues; speculation is ripe in such a data-poor environment. Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb has used the lack of data to propose that 'Oumuamua is an alien spaceship. But considering intelligent aliens may be capable of doing whatever they want, this could be an explanation for pretty much any observation.
[...] Ultimately, we'll never know. And maybe, like that strange visitor, we should just move on... (MORE - missing details)
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/NQMn3FTZgHU
EXCERPTS: . . . 'Oumuamua is perhaps the strangest object we have ever seen inside the solar system. No other known asteroid or comet has a shape that extreme (although, to be fair, our catalog of objects 100 meters or larger isn't exactly complete). 'Oumuamua has a dusty red color, which is similar to the hues of other deep-solar system objects. But it didn't act like a comet, the most common small object at those distances from the sun.
The interstellar visitor entered the solar system with a velocity very close to the local standard of rest, which is the average velocity of stars in our neighborhood. However, most of those stars have individual velocities much higher than that. So why should 'Oumuamua have something very close to the average number? It remains a mystery.
Lastly, on its way out of the solar system, 'Oumuamua gave astronomers one more giant mystery: It appeared to be accelerating, moving away from the sun at a slightly faster pace with every passing day. This wouldn't be the weirdest thing for comets, which can have abnormal acceleration profiles due to outgassing of materials. But observations of 'Oumuamua revealed no such activity.
In the years since the original discovery, only one other interstellar visitor has been spotted. And that object, called 2I/Borisov, looked and acted like any other comet. Nothing like 'Oumuamua has ever been seen before or since.
So what is 'Oumuamua? The debate continues; speculation is ripe in such a data-poor environment. Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb has used the lack of data to propose that 'Oumuamua is an alien spaceship. But considering intelligent aliens may be capable of doing whatever they want, this could be an explanation for pretty much any observation.
[...] Ultimately, we'll never know. And maybe, like that strange visitor, we should just move on... (MORE - missing details)