If it’s a day ending in -y, researchers are likely to argue about the origin of the mysterious interstellar object ‘Oumuamua’.
A newly published study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters has put the kibosh on the idea that ‘Oumuamua is made from molecular hydrogen ice, an idea first proposed in April and reported by Fox News.
“The proposal of [Darryl] Seligman and [Gregory] Laughlin appeared promising because it could explain the extremely elongated form of ‘Oumuamua and the non-gravitational acceleration’, ‘the lead author of the study, Dr Thiem Hoang, senior researcher in the theoretical astrophysics group at Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), said in a statement. “Their theory, however, is based on the assumption that H2 ice could form in dense molecular clouds. If this were true, H2 ice objects could be abundant in the universe, and thus would have far-reaching implications. H2 ice was also proposed. to explain dark matter, a mystery of modern astrophysics. “
MYSTERIOUS INTERSTELLING OBJECT ‘OUMUAMUA COMES NEW ORIGINSTORY
Dr Avi Loeb, a co-author of the new study, said the researchers want to test the proposition of dark matter as well as the assumptions in the theory.
“We suspected that hydrogen icebergs could not survive the voyage – which is likely to take hundreds of millions of years – because they evaporated too quickly, and about whether they could form in molecular clouds,” Loeb added in the statement.
In an email to Fox News, Laughlin said the new study is “an interesting analysis” and discusses some of the issues raised by the new paper.
“I think that although Hoang and Loeb have raised cogent and initiating points, there is still (in my view) an excellent chance that the H2 ice hypothesis is correct,” Laughlin told Fox News. “To be honest, I think the most worrying about the H2 ice hypothesis is just whether the dense nuclei of molecular clouds can really get cold for H2 to start on the larger grains. The temperature should be fairly close to the temperature of the background of the microwave for the process to work.Unfortunately, if our H2 ice hypothesis is correct, then the Vera Rubin Telescope (LSST) will find more objects such as’ Oumuamua, and it will find them in time for their composition to be better prepared. “
In November 2018, a study published by Loeb and others at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics suggested ‘Oumuamua could be sent “a ray of light of artificial origin” from another civilization.
However, the researcher who discovered ‘Oumuamua, Canadian physicist and astronomer Robert Weryk, said that the idea that it was from another civilization was simply “wild speculation.”
‘Oumuamua, which means’ pathfinder’ as’ scout ‘in Hawaii, was first classified as an asteroid when it was detected traveling in 2017 traveling at 196,000 km / h, but has recently been found more similar to a comet.
The place of its origin is still a mystery, although some have suggested that it may have come from Giant Molecular Cloud (GMC) W51, 17,000 light-years from Earth. However, the researchers said that is probably not the case.
“The most likely place to create hydrogen icebergs is in the immediate vicinity of the interstellar medium,” Loeb added. “These are giant molecular clouds.”
INTERSTELLENT VISITOR ‘OUMUAMUA’ HAS NOT YET PEOPLE HOME, THEORIES SAY
“Thermal sublimation by collision heating in GMCs could destroy molecular hydrogen icebergs of ‘Oumuamua’ size before escaping into the interstellar medium,” Loeb continued.
As for the origin of ‘Oumuamua, Loeb is sure that other objects like it will be discovered in short order.
“If ‘Oumuamua’s a member of a population of similar objects on random trajectories, then the Vera C. Rubin Observatory (VRO), which is scheduled to have its first light next year, should detect about one’ Oumuamua-like object per month. , “explained the researcher. “We will all be waiting with anticipation to see what it will find.”
A second interstellar object, Comet 2I / Borisov, was discovered in August 2019.
From January 2018 no longer observable by telescopes, many have speculated about ‘Ouamumua. In addition to the light sail theory, some have theorized that it is a comet as an asteroid.
The mystery about its exact nature deepened in late 2018, when NASA said it had been looking in the direction of Ouamumua for two months, but did not originally see it.
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