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Credit & Copyright: European Southern Observatory,
M. Kornmesser
Explanation:
Nothing like it has ever been seen before.
The unusual space rock
'Oumuamua
is so intriguing mainly because it is the
first
asteroid ever detected from outside our
Solar System --
although likely many more are to follow given modern computer-driven sky monitoring.
Therefore humanity's telescopes -- of nearly every variety -- have put
'Oumuamua
into their observing schedule to help better understand this unusual
interstellar visitor.
Pictured is an
artist's illustration of
what
'Oumuamua
might look like up close.
'Oumuamua is also intriguing, however, because it has unexpected parallels to
Rama,
a famous fictional interstellar spaceship created by the late science fiction writer
Arthur C. Clarke.
Like Rama, 'Oumuamua is
unusually elongated,
should be made of strong material to avoid breaking apart, is
only passing through our Solar System,
and passed unusually close to the Sun for something gravitationally unbound.
Unlike a visiting spaceship, though, 'Oumuamua's
trajectory,
speed, color, and even
probability of detection
are consistent with it forming naturally around a
normal star many millions of years ago,
being expelled after gravitationally encountering a
normal planet,
and subsequently orbiting in our Galaxy alone.
Even given
'Oumuamua's
likely conventional origin, perhaps
humanity can hold hope that one day we will have the
technology to engineer 'Oumuamua -- or another Solar System interloper -- into an
interstellar Rama of our own.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: asteroid
Publications with words: asteroid
See also: