Explanation:
Why is 'Oumuamua differing from its expected trajectory?
Last year,
1I/2017 U1 'Oumuamua
became the first known asteroid from interstellar space to pass through
our Solar System.
Just over a year ago, this tumbling interstellar rock even passed rather close to
the Earth.
The asteroid's future path should have been easy to predict given standard gravity
-- but 'Oumuamua's
path has proven to be slightly different.
In the
featured animation,
'Oumuamua is shown approaching and exiting the vicinity of
our Sun, with the expected gravitational and observed trajectories labelled.
The leading natural hypothesis for this unexpected deviation is internal gas jets
becoming active on the
Sun-warmed asteroid
-- but
speculation
and further computer
simulations are ongoing.
'Oumuamua will never return, but
modern sky monitors are expected to find and track similar
interstellar asteroids within the next few years.
