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Ever since astronomers spotted 'Oumuamua, the first-ever object from beyond our solar system, it has offered more questions than answers: — What is it? Where did it come from? Why is it so darn weird? But a team of scientists has announced they may have made major progress on that second question, narrowing down the object's origins to just four stars. The research is based on data gathered in June that suggested 'Oumuamua wasn't just hurtling through space willy-nilly. Instead, it seemed like when the object was near the sun, it picked up a bit of extra speed, as if, like a comet, it carried something like ice that could turn to water vapor and propel the object forward a little faster than usual.
Accounting for that fact nudged 'Oumuamua's entry trajectory into our solar system a bit. (Scientists only spotted the object on its way out of the solar system, then had to retrace its path to track its origin.) Then, the scientists consulted a huge batch of data produced by the European Space Agency's Gaia mission to pinpoint the precise locations of stars. That atlas is important not just to allow scientists to identify potential source solar systems, but also to calculate how nearby stars and their gravity tugged the object off-course along its journey. Combining those two pieces of information, the team identified four possible stars that could have birthed 'Oumuamua: red dwarf HIP 3757, sunlike star HD 292249, and two other stars without such manageable nicknames as of yet.
0 MORE Partner Series Scientists Find Source of Bizarre Space Object 'Oumuamua An artist's depiction of Oumuamua, the first detected interstellar object. Credit: M. Kornmesser/ESO Ever since astronomers spotted 'Oumuamua, the first-ever object from beyond our solar system, it has offered more questions than answers: — What is it? Where did it come from? Why is it so darn weird? But a team of scientists has announced they may have made major progress on that second question, narrowing down the object's origins to just four stars. The research is based on data gathered in June that suggested 'Oumuamua wasn't just hurtling through space willy-nilly. Instead, it seemed like when the object was near the sun, it picked up a bit of extra speed, as if, like a comet, it carried something like ice that could turn to water vapor and propel the object forward a little faster than usual. Advertisement Accounting for that fact nudged 'Oumuamua's entry trajectory into our solar system a bit. (Scientists only spotted the object on its way out of the solar system, then had to retrace its path to track its origin.) Then, the scientists consulted a huge batch of data produced by the European Space Agency's Gaia mission to pinpoint the precise locations of stars. That atlas is important not just to allow scientists to identify potential source solar systems, but also to calculate how nearby stars and their gravity tugged the object off-course along its journey. Combining those two pieces of information, the team identified four possible stars that could have birthed 'Oumuamua: red dwarf HIP 3757, sunlike star HD 292249, and two other stars without such manageable nicknames as of yet. Astronomers believe that 'Oumuamua (the name means "messenger from afar arriving first" in Hawaiian) must have come from a solar system with at least one large gas giant planet in order for it to have been kicked out and set off across the universe. As of yet, all four candidate stars are planet-less — but that could always change. The new research is described in a paper posted Sept. 24 to the preprint site arXiv.org and has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.
originally posted by: Kharron
The Davidians got the wrong comet. Joke's on them.
. Hopefully, we as a species will already be going to the stars by the time it returns!
originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: Sabrechucker
I posted this yesterday on the original thread (love the spelling mistake!) - Astroid from outside the solar system, or something else?.
Since it is travelling away from us, it will probably not be a threat any time soon. Hopefully, we as a species will already be going to the stars by the time it returns!
The first detected interstellar object 'Oumuamua that passed within 0.25au of the Sun on 2017 September 9 was presumably ejected from a stellar system. We use its newly determined non-Keplerian trajectory together with the reconstructed Galactic orbits of 7 million stars from Gaia DR2 to identify past close encounters. Such an "encounter" could reveal the home system from which 'Oumuamua was ejected. The closest encounter, at 0.60pc (0.53-0.67pc, 90% confidence interval), was with the M2.5 dwarf HIP 3757 at a relative velocity of 24.7km/s, 1Myr ago. A more distant encounter (1.6pc) but with a lower encounter (ejection) velocity of 10.7km/s was with the G5 dwarf HD 292249, 3.8Myr ago. Two more stars have encounter distances and velocities intermediate to these. The encounter parameters are similar across six different non-gravitational trajectories for 'Oumuamua. Ejection of 'Oumuamua by scattering from a giant planet in one of the systems is plausible, but requires a rather unlikely configuration to achieve the high velocities found. A binary star system is more likely to produce the observed velocities. None of the four home candidates have published exoplanets or are known to be binaries. Given that the 7 million stars in Gaia DR2 with 6D phase space information is just a small fraction of all stars for which we can eventually reconstruct orbits, it is a priori unlikely that our current search would find 'Oumuamua's home star system. As 'Oumuamua is expected to pass within 1pc of about 20 stars and brown dwarfs every Myr, the plausibility of a home system depends also on an appropriate (low) encounter velocity.
originally posted by: Blue Shift
Just because the trajectory points at some stars doesn't mean that's where it came from, you silly scientists. In a couple million years, an alien will track its trajectory which clearly shows that it came from our solar system, and possibly even launched by us.