1st Interstellar Visitor 'Oumuamua Is Actually Not That Special

wwkirk

Divine
1st Interstellar Visitor 'Oumuamua Is Actually Not That Special
SEATTLE — A cigar-shaped space rock named 'Oumuamua caused quite a stir when it became the first interstellar visitor discovered in our solar system. Is it an asteroid, a comet or an alien spacecraft? While astronomers continue to work on answering these big questions, one thing has become certain: 'Oumuamua probably isn't that special.

In fact, there are likely trillions upon trillions of objects just like 'Oumuamua drifting through the Milky Way galaxy, Greg Laughlin, an astronomer from Yale University, said during a lecture here at the 233rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society. More precisely, he estimated that there are about 10^26 of them in our galaxy alone.

So, though 'Oumuamua may be the first and only interstellar visitor astronomers have spotted in the solar system, this kind of interstellar object may not be that rare, astronomers say. Rather, it's possible we just haven't seen them, because we haven't been looking hard enough.

A new study from Harvard University suggests that about two 'Oumuamua-like objects swing past the sun every year. The paper, published Jan. 4 to the pre-print journal arXiv.org (and not yet peer-reviewed), offers a new way to learn about 'Oumuamua's composition and origin: by comparing the object to other comets and asteroids observed in the solar system. By factoring in the estimated density of interstellar comets, the researchers found that 'Oumuamua-like objects "collide with the sun every 30 years, while about two pass within the orbit of Mercury each year."
 

MDecon

Adept
I always thought this object wasn't worthy of mention. Initially when I first heard about it, and had read other in the so-called UFO community's opinions.

I thought oh okay this is hyped up, sort of like the Hale bop comet.

Sad.
 
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