′Oumuamua One Year Later

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Roger
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′Oumuamua One Year Later

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'Oumuamua, the extraterrestrial object that was discovered travelling through our solar system on October 19, 2017, might be a extraterrestrial reconnaissance craft, or possibly a derelict extraterrestrial space craft. At least, that's what Harvard University astrophysicists are now saying.

Apparently, the object dubbed, 'Oumuamua (/oʊˌmuːəˈmuːə/ listen), has a couple of characteristics which has caused doubt as to what it is.

One, the object deviated from it's predicted trajectory, if it had simply been a space rock this wouldn't have happened.
The IRAC camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope is currently about 155 million miles from Earth, and had a very different viewing angle toward 'Oumuamua than did Earth-bound telescopes. CfA astronomers Joe Hora, Howard Smith and Giovanni Fazio, together with their long-standing team of Near Earth Object scientists and other colleagues, pointed IRAC at the spot in the sky where predictions placed 'Oumuamua (because it is not bound to the Solar system and is so fast moving, 'Oumuamua’s path in the sky was comparatively difficult to calculate). After thirty hours of staring – a relatively long time – the object was not detected, and subsequent orbital analyses confirmed that the camera was pointed correctly towards it. The limit to its emission, however, was so low that it enabled the team to constrain some of its physical properties. The lack of an infrared signal, for example, suggests it has no gas or dust, species that would be expected if it were a cometary-like body.


Two, the object changed it's velocity to a greater degree than expected by gravitational perturbations of the sun, planets other solar system material.
Our high-precision measurements of ′Oumuamua's position revealed that there was something affecting its motion other than the gravitational forces of the Sun and planets,' said Marco Micheli of ESA's (European Space Agency) Space Situational Awareness Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre in Frascati, Italy, and lead author of a paper describing the team's findings.


Thus the casual explanation that 'Oumuamua is a comet is kind of lame.

As Prof. Abraham Loeb explains:
Although such deviations could be associated with the rocket effect associated by outgassing due to heating of water ice by the sun, there was no sign of any cometary tail behind ‘Oumuamua, and calculations imply, contrary to observations, that its spin period should have changed significantly by any cometary torque.


Whatever it is, I believe that ′Oumuamua's passage and discovery through our solar system will have a far reaching impact, that will one day guide science in a direction that is unimaginable today, yet highly necessary.

For me, the mystery that is 'Oumuamua is as exciting and enticing as if a UFO were to land on the White House lawn today.


Source: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/su201842
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/ob ... lizations/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech ... ation.html
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1810.11490.pdf
http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/astro/oumuamua.html


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