A new study says that a mysterious cookie-shaped object that entered our solar system probably came off a distant planet.
Astronomers at Arizona State University reported earlier this month that the strange 45-meter object appears to be composed of frozen nitrogen.
The study’s writers, Alan Jackson and Steven Desch, think a powerful force dropped a piece of an icy planet covered in nitrogen 500 million years ago. The piece came out of its own stellar system towards ours. It is believed that the reddish object is very different from yours original me, with the outer parts badly affected by radiation and the sun.
The object is called Oumuamua, a Hawaiian word meaning “messenger from afar.”” It gets its name from the Hawaii Observatory that discovered it in 2017.
Oumuamua was first seen as a little light millions of miles away. It was found to come from beyond our solar system because its speed and trajectory suggested that it did not orbit the sun or anything else.
The only confirmed object that comes from another star system in ours is comet 2I / Borisov, discovered in 2019.
Oumuamua looked like one asteroid but accelerated like a comet. Unlike a comet, however, it had no visible tail. Scientists disagreed over whether it was an asteroid or a comet. Some even suggested that it may have been related to alien life.
“Everyone is interested in aliens, and that’s how it was inevitable that this first object outside the solar system would make people think of aliens, “Desch said in a statement.” But in science it’s important not to do that. jump to conclusions“.
Jackson and Desch created computer models that helped them find that Oumuamua was probably a piece of nitrogen ice. They also discovered that the object slowly wears out over time.
His two articles were published by the American Geophysical Union. They were also presented at the lunar and planetary sciences conference, which was held online earlier this year.
When Oumuamua was closest to Earth, it appeared to be six times as wide as its thickness. It’s about the same as half an Oreo cookie, Desch said.
Oumuamua is now more than 3.2 billion miles away and is too small to be seen, even by the Hubble Space Telescope. As a result, Jackson said, astronomers will have to rely on original observations to continue studying it.
Desch noted that the object will continue to be thinner as it moves through space. He said in an email that when Oumuamua begins to leave our solar system by 2040, it will be “as flat as a crepes“.
I’m Jonathan Evans.
Marcia Dunn reported this story to the Associated Press. Jonathan Evans adapted this story to learn English. Bryan Lynn was the editor.
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Words in this story
original – adj. existing from the beginning
asteroid – n. a space rock, small or the size of a large moon, orbiting the sun
comet – n. an object in outer space made of material such as gas and ice that is left behind in its orbit as it approaches the sun
inevitable – adj. something that cannot be avoided or avoided
jump to the conclusions – v. to guess the facts of a situation without having much information
crepes – n. a flat, fine meal that is cooked in a pan