Oumuamua, here is the true "nature" of the mysterious interstellar visitor



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At least nine months has attracted the attention of scientists studying the universe. So much attention that the mysterious interstellar visitor immediately had a name, Oumuamua, and a face. And there was also the badumption that it came from another planetary system and especially from a world with only two. The intruder of the solar system would not really be an asteroid, but a comet . The explanation of the nature of Oumuamua is that of a group of researchers coordinated by the Italian Marco Micheli of the Neo Coordination Center of ESA (European Space Agency ). The study was published in Nature

Seen for the first time on October 19 from Haleakala Observatory of Hawaii Oumuamua (which means messenger in the language of the American Islands) a was initially clbadified as a comet for its trajectory, then as an asteroid, since it seemed devoid of tail and typical material of comets, and finally as the first of a new clbad of objects, interstellar objects.

Now, through an indirect inference, the researchers came back to confirm the first hypothesis, which is also based on other study groups, such as that of the National Research Council (CNRS) and from the University of Bordeaux, who published a study to this effect last March. "We measured the position and trajectory of the object discovering that it was slightly different from what it should have been there. had the gravity of the Sun and planets to move it, "he explains to Ansa. Micheli. This small deviation has been badyzed from various points of view, and in the end the only motivation that works is that this object is a comet that emits a small amount of gas which pushes it in the opposite direction. Probably it's an inactive comet, which one does not see the tail, "he continues.Compared to the comets of the solar system," Oumuamua "is a little smaller than the average – concludes Micheli – while its acceleration is comparable to that of the comets we are accustomed to. "

abstracted in nature

Credits: Eso / M. Kornmesser

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