Astronomers are now certain that the mysterious object detected hurtling past our sun last month is indeed from another solar system. They have named it 1I/2017 U1(’Oumuamua) and believe it could be one of 10,000 others lurking undetected in our cosmic neighbourhood. The certainty of its extraterrestrial origin comes from an analysis that shows its orbit is almost impossible to achieve from within our solar system. Its name comes from a Hawaiian term for messenger or scout. Indeed, it is the first space rock to have been identified as forming around another star. Since asteroids coalesce during the process of planet formation, this object can tell us something about the formation of planets around its unknown parent star. The latest analyses with ground-based telescopes show that ’Oumuamua is quite similar to some comets and asteroids in our own solar system. This is important because it suggests that planetary compositions like ours could be typical across the galaxy. It is thought to be an extremely dark object, absorbing 96% of the light that falls on its surface, and it is red. This colour is the hallmark of organic (carbon-based) molecules. Organic molecules are the building blocks of the biological molecules that allow life to function. It is widely thought that the delivery of organic molecules to the early Earth by the collision of comets and asteroids made life here possible. ’Oumuamua shows that the same could be possible in other solar systems. https://www.theguardian.com/science...ect-confirmed-to-be-from-another-solar-system
I love stories like this. I remember reading about it when they first spotted the object. The confirmation is fantastic.
This all happened after Trump started "tweeting". Actually, this reminds me of the early Star Trek TV show episode when a "cornucopia" object with a dazzling center core absorbed planets.
Scientists can't see the bright red object clearly. This NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory video (beginning 58 seconds in) says it's a quarter of a mile by 40 meters. That's a 10 to 1 ratio, unnatural and like a spacecraft. The ship would have been shaped like a sausage to fit the creatures inside. The Sausage People can't navigate because their ship ran out of fuel. After it leaves the Solar System, it will next encounter a star in millions of years, so we need to rescue them.
Here's my favorite board, populated by space engineers. They usually speak only in engineering parlance, but this time they're agog. http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=44075.msg1751872#msg1751872 These are experts. For example, poster Blackstar writes most of the articles in the Space Review.
Blackstar (Jeff Fouts) is also the main writer at SpaceNews. Anyway, I'm thinking that after rescue, the longest of the grateful Sausage People could solve our Small Forward problem. Okay it's 7:30 and I'm out; I feel like breakfast.
Couple of bones to pick here. 1) Extraterrestrial just means it's not from earth. Which should be pretty obvious. 2) Interstellar means 'between stars'. So the title of the article is close to a tautology. barfo
Lets inform Congress to budget that "capitol cost" aside. It's American duty to rescue the sausage people............ A Trillion Dollars ?