Discoveries

April 05, 2023

A Star’s Garbage

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In 2017, astronomers in Hawaii spotted the first interstellar object entering the Solar System.

Dubbed ‘Oumuamua – Hawaiian for “messenger from afar arriving first” – there has been much speculation over the “cigar- or pancake-shaped” object that was traveling so fast, it could not be bound to the Sun.

Theories abounded about the ‘Oumuamua, including whether it was a comet, an asteroid or even an alien space probe.

But to the dismay of fans of aliens-are-among-us theories, a new study has found that the 1,300-foot object is in fact just a comet, Science Magazine reported.

Researchers Jennifer Bergner and Darryl Seligman explained that the ‘Oumuamua was peculiar because it looked like an asteroid, but behaved like a comet.

Unlike asteroids, comets have comas – the bright light tails formed when the space rock emits jets of gases and dust, according to the New York Times. However, the alien ‘Oumuamua did not have a coma, or dust and gas around it.

Instead, the research team suggested that what caused the ‘Oumuamua to travel at about 54 miles per second was trapped hydrogen inside the comet.

Their findings suggest that ‘Oumuamua started as a water-rich comet that was ejected from a nearby star. The team noted that cosmic rays in the galaxy could have transformed up to 30 percent of the comet’s water-based ice into hydrogen, which could have been trapped in ‘Oumuamua’s ice during its journey through interstellar space.

Then the ice melted as it neared the Sun, and the released hydrogen boosted the comet’s speed.

“We don’t need to invoke anything super-exotic to explain this behavior,” Bergner told Science Magazine.

Unfortunately, no telescope can study ‘Oumuamua anymore because it is now past Neptune’s orbit on its way out of the Solar System.

This story originally appeared in the April 05, 2023 newsletter, The Revolution Playbook.