The origin and identity of the giant spacecraft that took care of the Earth in the year 2017 has been a mystery ever since.
The Hawaiian object named ‘Um Mumuamua’ – the Hawaiian name meaning “scout” or “messenger” – traveled on a route that strongly suggested that it came from another star system. From which he got the first interseller lar budget till date.
But what was it? Several researchers, including Harvard University astronomer Avi Loeb, said the object was an alien spacecraft. Others suggested it was an asteroid or possibly an inters intestinal comet.
Now, a pair of papers published in the Journal of the American Geophysical Union presents another theory: ‘Omuamua was cursed from a small planet from a different solar system.
“We’ve probably solved the mystery of what Omuamua is, and we can reasonably recognize it as part of the planet ‘Exo-Pluto,’ like Pluto in the other solar system,” said Stacey Dash, an astrophysicist at the University of Arizona and co The author, stated in a press release.
Planetary fragment made up of stable nitrogen
The country and its colleagues believe that half a billion years ago, spacecraft struck the parent planet of Omuamua. It sent ‘Omuamua’ caring to our solar system.
Once he gets close to the sun, his thought goes, ‘Omuamua let go as the sunlight evaporates his icy body. Comets follow a similar movement pattern, known as the “rocket effect”.
Since ‘Omuamua’s makeup is unknown, the researchers calculated what type of ice should be rate (change from solid to gas) at the rate that is responsible for‘ Omuamua’s rocket effect. They concluded that the object was probably composed of nitrogen ice, similar to the surface of Pluto and Neptune’s moon Triton.
Advanced color view of Pluto, taken by NASA’s new Horizon spacecraft.
NASA / JHUAPL / SRI
As it got closer to our solar system – and therefore the sun – ‘Omuamua began to lower stable nitrogen levels. The substance entered our solar system in 1995, though we did not realize it at the time, then lost 95% of its mass and melted into sliver, the study authors said.
It is a comet. It is a planet. No, not even that.
Example of a space object ‘Omuamua flying through the solar system in late 2017.
NASA / ESA / STSCI
By the time astronomers became aware of Omuamua’s existence in 2017, it was zipping away from Earth from 196,000 miles away. So they had a few weeks to study the weird, skyscraper-sized object. Flying on the budget made limited observations of many telescopes on the ground and in space, but astronomers were unable to fully investigate it. ‘Omuamua is too far away and obscure to observe further with existing technologies.
The Limited Nature of Information Scientists gather left room for scientists to guess what the left object might be and where it came from. ‘Omuamua was initially classified as a comet, but it does not appear to be composed of ice, and it does not emit gas like a comet.
‘Omuamua’s spin, speed and ball cannot be explained by gravity alone, which suggests that it is not a planet either. And the shape and profile of the object – it’s about a mile long, but only 114 feet wide – does not match any of the comets or asteroids seen before.
According to the authors of the new study, ‘Omuamua’s stable-nitrogen composition may explain that shape.
“As the outer layers of nitrogen ice evaporated, the shape of the body would become progressively more flattened, like a strip of soap rubbed using the outer layers,” Ellen Jackson said in the release.
Some astronomers still think it was an alien ship
Unlike most celestial rocks, the Omuamua telescope accelerated rather than slowed down in observations.
That’s part of why Loeb thinks ‘Omuamua was an alien spacecraft. In a book he published in January, entitled “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth,” he described Loebe ‘Omuamua as a fragment of the alien Technol of Geno.
In December, he told Insider, “There are discrepancies in the budget that deserve a little attention – things are not going as expected.” “Others say, ‘Let’s move those discrepancies under the guise of servitude.’ I have a problem with that because when something doesn’t line up, you have to say it. “
An artist’s portrayal of ‘Omuamua’.
ESA / Hubble; NASA; ESO; like this. Cornmeaser
Nevertheless, in a 2019 study by an international group of astronomers, an analysis of the available ‘Omuamua’ data and concluded that Loeb’s theory is unlikely.
“We find no strong evidence to support the alien explanation for Omuamua,” the astronomers wrote.
Matthew Knight, an astronomer at the University of Maryland, who co-authored the study, said: “This is strange and difficult to explain, but it does not exclude other natural phenomena that may explain it.”
