In a report they published, Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics researchers at Harvard suggested that 'Oumuamua might have had
a "artificial origin," speculating that the object might have been
"deliberately dispatched to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization.
The "excess acceleration" of the object, or its sudden increase in speed independent of the Sun's gravitational pull, is the basis of this idea. Even now, this stumps researchers.
Since its discovery in 2017, we haven't learned anything about the interstellar object. But one thing is for sure: it's moving quickly, incredibly quickly.
According to NASA, 'Oumuamua was actually moving through the inner Solar System at 196,000 miles per hour (87.3 kilometres per second) when it passed closest to Earth. This is only.017 percent the speed of light, yet it is over three times faster than the average speed of a main-belt asteroid and 109 times faster than the average speed of a bullet. Just in case you were curious.
Despite this, 'Oumuamua is only now leaving the
outer Solar System, almost 5 years later. Currently, it is travelling just past
Pluto, covering more than 2,832,000 miles (4,557,662 km) every day. It will
take another two years before it is entirely in interstellar space.
It was challenging to observe and categorise the object in 2017 due to its fast slingshot around the Sun.
We still haven't given 'Oumuamua an official classification. This is partially due to the fact that we have no notion. We initially believed it to be an asteroid—a big piece of rock from a far-off star system. Then we believed it to be a comet—a cosmic iceberg sent out into the vast abyss. Researchers and experts are now perplexed. It is only left to speculatively determine what the cosmic visitor was given there is little information available.
.jpg)
.png)
0 Comments