In October 2017, an interstellar visitor called 'Oumuamua swept through the solar system.
What is known
Astronomers have been observing ‘Oumuamua forfour months using telescopes. At the beginning of 2018, a mysterious object 400 meters in size disappeared. It is assumed that he has already left the limits of our star system.
‘Oumuamua is a mysterious objectin the form of a cigar. As we noted, its length is 400 meters. The diameter reaches 40 meters. Scientists do not know where it came from, but now they can say with confidence that ‘Oumuamua is not an alien ship. And he came from another star system.
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One of the interesting features of 1I/2017 U1 wasthat he managed to overcome the attraction of the Sun and fly away from our star at high speed without any problems. Usually comets can boast of this. Astronomers believe that hydrogen is responsible for the acceleration of ‘Oumuamua.
Scientists at the University of California at Berkeleysuggest that the mysterious guest is a stone. Its source may be a planetesimal, a celestial body from which planets are formed. ‘Oumuamua may have broken off when colliding with another massive object.
Heat from the sun triggered the release of hydrogen gas, heating up hydrogen molecules that were under the ice. This led to the acceleration of 1I/2017 U1 and the rapid exit from our star system.
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Initially, scientists believed that ‘Oumuamua iscomet or asteroid. However, the interstellar guest did not have a tail and changed its flight speed. The first point is uncharacteristic of a comet, and the second is uncharacteristic of an asteroid. Therefore, both assumptions had to be discarded.