The mysterious Oumuamua may not be alone



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million. Kornmesser / European Southern Observatory

Artist's view of the first interstellar asteroid: Oumuamua

Oumuamua may not be alone. Thousands of objects similar to the "Star Messenger", during the celebration of the first interstellar asteroid, could be trapped in the solar system, according to a survey.

According to a new study recently published for the first time. On arXiv.org, thousands of objects similar to Oumuamua can be trapped in the solar system, and hundreds of their orbits can be identified and four of these objects will have been observed.

The pending publication of the Amir Siraj student studying astronomy at Harvard University in the United States, and a professor at the same institute. Monthly Notices of and Royal Astronomical Society institution, Abraham Loeb who had recently suggested in another investigation that Oumuamua might be an artificial object, notes Europa Press. Siraj and Loeb decided to explore the orbital properties of possible interstellar objects captured in the solar system in order to identify how many objects would be similar to Oumuamua .

In this sense, they performed dynamic simulations of asteroid-type objects to see what they would be if they were captured by the Jupiter-Sun system. Scientists used random conditions to determine the orbits that these objects would have. Later they compared the results of these simulations with the data of the telescope Pan STARRS – the telescope located in Hawaii that discovered the "Messenger of the Stars" on October 19, 2017.

These comparisons have about one of these objects – for example Oumuamua – of an approximate length of 100 meters – depending on the volume defined by the movement of the Earth around the Sun.

In total, each planetary system must expel 10,000 billion objects. of this type during its useful life, notes the publication. Of these objects, a small fraction is trapped in the solar system as objects pbad close to Jupiter, losing energy because of their gravitational interaction with the planet.

Jupiter acts as a fishing net containing a few thousand items captured at any time, said Loeb in a statement to Forbes. The objects are finally expelled from the system, but new objects are captured and, for this very reason, there remains a stable population.

In summary, scientists have discovered, through computer simulations, that our solar system could be filled with thousands of objects similar to the mysterious Oumuamua and that hundreds can be identified at from their orbits. According to scientists, the phenomenon could be more common than previously thought. Scientists also believe that the LSST telescope, currently under construction, should be operational early in 2022, will discover dozens of these "jailed" objects.

The Four Potential Candidates

Siraj and Loeb also identified four specific candidates for the arrested objects described in their study. According to experts, these objects may have been discovered in previous research. The objects are designated 2011 SP25, 2017 RR2, 2017 SV13 and 2018 TL6, located between from 8.26 to 23.65 astronomical units with respect to the Sun, having an orbit ranging from 23.76 to 115 "

"When these objects are trapped, we can" fly over "them, take a picture of them, or land them on the surface," said Loeb in a statement to Univers Today . we will be able "to know its structure, its composition and its origins, as well as better to deduce the conditions existing in its nurseries outside the solar system and, finally, to allow us to identify objects of artificial origin". 19659006] The study of these objects would imply extraordinary progress for science Assuming that these objects have a natural origin, their study will reveal data on the conditions of other planetary systems, which could avoid the constant need to send yer interstellar probes to explore them.

On the other hand, as Loeb pointed out, if such artifacts are artificially artifacts, such as remnants of extraterrestrial probes, as has been suggested for Oumuamua, the implications would be far greater .

"It will be a revolution, because it will show that we are not alone and that we are going to shed light on us – advanced technologies beyond what we already have." [Esta descoberta] could be the most important result for science and technology in the centuries to come. "


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