We know that apart from planets and
satellites, there are many types of objects in our
solar system. Such as
asteroids,
comets,
metioroids etc. But for the first time in the year 2017, we detected an object that did not even belong to our solar system. Actually this object came from another solar system. Its speed was so fast that it easily got out of the
sun's gravity. It is currently on the path that will take it out of our solar system.
This object was previously named
c/2017 U1 Panstarrs, later changed to
Oumuamua which is an
Hawaiian name, meaning the first messenger to arrive from
outer space.
In today's episode, we will learn about this object and also where it came from, how it was detected, what it could actually be, etc. So let's start today's episode.
The day was 19 October 2017, when the Astronomers first noticed an object whose trajectory was different from all other objects in the solar system. Its speed was so fast that even the gravitational force of the sun was not able to disturb it.
This has been detected from the
Pan-STARRS, a group of powerful telescopes that keeps an eye on all kinds of objects that are either moving or variable in space, such as
astroids and
comets.
At first Astronomers felt that this object is nothing more than a simple comet. But when they kept an eye on it for 34 consecutive days and investigated it on the basis of
orbital mechanic, it was found that it is not only from this solar system, but has reached here from another solar system. As I already mentioned, it was named
Oumuamua which is a Hawaiian name which means the first messenger to come from far away. Before we know where it came from, let us know how it is shaped and what it is made of. The picture taken by our telescope of this object is something like this.
As you can see for yourself it is nothing more than a small blurred dot. Therefore it is almost impossible to tell the size of this object based on this picture only. But when we kept a constant eye on it, we saw that there was a continuous difference in its brightness with irregular periods.
Such properties in our solar system only show objects that are tall in size and in
tumbling motion, that is, their body is constantly changing its position while traveling. Such objects bear witness to a large
collagen in their path. Because
Oumuamua does not have a tail like
comets, we can say that its surface is not being
vaporized due to the
radiation of the Sun.
This simply means that it is either made of stone or metalp at least to a depth of 1 meter. That is, it is definitely an astroid and not a comet. If we talk about its length and width, then it is about
400 meters long and at least
10 times wider than it.
We have not seen any object of this size in our solar system till date. No object has been seen in our solar system in proportion to the length and breadth of more than
3:1. The brightness pattern of Oumuamua suggests that it is spinning once every
7.3 hours. Its surface is brown which shows that this object has been facing the
cosmic rays since
million years. At present, astronomers are assuming that it is an asteroid that is shaped like a
cigar and is either made entirely of stone or of metal. There is also a possibility that, it may be a
spaceship of another
advanced civilization, which is completely made of metal. It may be that some other developed civilization living in the second solar system sent it to our solar system to contact us. Just like we have sent
voyager spacecrafts to another solar system. Although it seems quite difficult to happen but some astronomers are also investigating this possibility and are trying to find out if the object is sending any kind of signal to us. The strangest thing about it is its motion, we know that every object in our solar system always faces only in the
elliptical orbit following the
Capler's Law. The
eccentricity of the orbit shows us how widespread the ellipse is.
For example, if the eccentricity is
zero, the orbit will be a perfect circle
and if the eccentricity is
less than one, the orbit will be elliptical.
This means that every type of object in this solar system is gravitationally bound to the Sun. For example, the Earth's eccentricity is
0.0167 due to which its orbit is almost circular.
The
heli comet has a eccentricity of
0.967 due to which its orbit is a stretched ellipse.
Objects possessing more than one eccentricity follow an unbound hyperbolic path due to which they never circumnavigate the sun in the true sense. Such objects are deflected from the gravity of the Sun.
Oumuamua's eccentricity is 1.2, which means that its
hyperbolic path will take it out of our solar system. In other words, you can also understand it by
escape velocity. If you do not already know, let me tell you that escape velocity is the velocity of an object that can take it out of the gravitational field. The time when Oumuamua was in the orbit of the planet
Mercury, it was closest to the sun. At that time its speed was
87.7 kilometers per second. The escape velocity of this object must be about
80 kilometer per second for the
Mercury planet to pass through the orbit, as its speed is much higher than the gravity, Oumuamua could easily pass through the effects of the Sun's gravity and ready to enter again into interstellar space. On
9 September 2017 it was closest to the Sun. On 14 October, it passed close to the Earth and on
1 November it passed out of the orbit of
Mars. The speed at which it is going. It will overtake
Jupiter in May 2018 and ahead of
Saturn in 2019. Now the next question arises that where did it come from, and why was its pace so fast? The Astronomer considered three types of
Hypothesis to find the answer to this question. The first hypothesis was that this object did not come from outside our solar system, but it came from the
Kuiper belt or
Oort Cloud.
But the problem here was that the asteroids and comets coming from these regions are only able to gain enough speed to return to where they came from. In order to gain speed like Oumuamua, the region's incoming object required a certain type of
gravitational kick from a planetary object. The computer simulation model told us that there does not exist any planetary object that could do this. That is, Oumuamua cannot be of our solar system. The second Hypothesis is that Oumuamua came from another solar system not too far from us. It has gained so much momentum due to entering our solar system from the second solar system. To test this Hypothesis when we remitted the path of Oumuamua in computer simulations and the 3700 K motion within
100 light years away from the Sun, we came to the conclusion that Oumuamua was through Oort Cloud of the star named
t.y.c. 4742-102701,
1.3 million years ago. However, at that time the speed of Oumuamua must have been above 100 kilometers per second, which was enough to remove it from the gravity of that star system. This means that Oumuamua had entered somewhere in that star system as well. Now if we talk about the third Hypothesis, it says that Oumuamua came not from any solar system but from interstellar space. In fact, astronomers have long believed that a large number of astroids are found in the interstellar space. If you do not know about interstellar space, let me tell you that it would have been the distance between the two solar system where neither stars nor planets are present. During the formation of the solar system, parts separated by planets or satellites move into
interstellar space, which subsequently travel to different solar systems. Oumuamua was one such asteroid. Most people agreed with this Hypothesis. Today we are calling Oumuamua a first interstellar object, but is it really the only interstellar object that has entered our solar system? No, in fact, every year many interstellar objects come into our solar system. But most of the time we are unable to detect them. We were able to detect Oumuamua only because it came so close to Earth that the dens star could detect it. In order to easily detect these interstellar objects in future, Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is being constructed which will start functioning from 2019. Why are astronomers so excited about interstellar object discovery? In fact, there are two main reasons for this, the first is that astronomers have been believing for a long time that interstellar objects in our solar system are always entering in considerable amounts. But we were not able to detect any of these objects yet. In such a situation, it is really exciting to detect such an object first. Another reason is that such objects either come from interstellar space or from another solar system, they can give us information about interstellar space and the nature of other solar system. For example, the
cigar-like shape of Oumuamua was completely new to us. No object of such length and width is found in our solar system. If objects of this size are found in another solar system, it would mean that that solar system will be quite different from our own solar system. At present, we are not so developed that we can investigate this, but in future when we will be able to do this, then we will be able to know more about these guests from outside. Many of you may be wondering where Oumuamua is right now. The answer is that it is becoming increasingly distant from us and at the moment we do not have any such technology so that we can get more information about it. In the year 2022, it will cross the planet Neptune. It will then set out on its way to the
Pegasus Constellation.
For us it was a guest that we could not know much about, but it definitely inspired us to know about such guests coming in the future. At the pace with which science and technology is developing today, we can hope that in the future perhaps we will be able to travel interstellar like a
startreck film. Guys that's all in today's episode.
Hope you liked the episode. If so, do not forget to share it. If you are new on this website, then subscribe/bookmark it. So friends, will meet in the next episode with another interesting topic of science. Till then Namaste.
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