Slashdot Mirror
Alien Comet May Have Infiltrated the Solar System
New Scientist has a piece about Comet Machholz 1, whose uncommon molecular composition suggests, but does not prove, that it may be an interloper from another star system. "Comet Machholz 1 isn't like other comets. David Schleicher of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, measured the chemical makeup of 150 comets, and found that they all had similar levels of the chemical cyanogen (CN) except for Machholz 1, which has less than 1.5% of the normal level. Along with some other comets, it is also low on the molecules carbon-2 and carbon-3."
It's the occulter pylon. It holds the occulting disk in place to mask out the light coming directly from the sun.
U1NCaVpYUWdlVzkxSUhkcGMyZ2dlVzkx SUdoaFpHNG5kQ0JpYjNSb1pYSmxaQT09
Space chemistry is completely unrelated to "normal" earthly chemistry - for example, the second most popular molcule in the universe is H3+ (after H2).
What is discussed here are molecules composed exclusively of 2 and 3 carbon atoms:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomic_carbon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricarbon
Those who would give up liberty to obtain working drivers, deserve neither liberty nor working drivers.
The Sun alone can't capture a 'stray' comet - it'll just give it a gravity assist. You need at least three-bodies interaction for the orbital capture.
the Oort cloud, hypothesized to be the source of all comets.
Actually the very existence of the Oort cloud is hypothetical. While it provides a reasonable explanation for the existence of comets in our system there was no further independent confirmation until 2000, when more powerful telescopes identified one object that could belong to the cloud. Given that the number of comets could be into the trillions, having found a handful does not constitute definitive evidence, so it remains a mere hypothesis until more data is gathered.
For a foreign body to enter the system, it would have to pass through the Oort cloud and that would be highly unlikely. It's most probably an Oort cloud comet of a new type.
Comets in the Oort cloud are tens of millions of kilometers apart. An exo-solar comet would have no problem "sneaking" in.
Besides that, how would it have come here anyway? What is the escape velocity for getting out of a star system?
There is nothing mysterious or difficult to believe here.
We see about four comets per century that have hyperbolic trajectories - that is to say, they are never coming back.
These hyperbolic comets are either interstellar interlopers already and have not been captured by the solar system (which would typically occur by losing part of its kinetic energy to one of the gas giants through gravitational interaction), or they are solar system comets being ejected into interstellar space (through gaining energy by the same mechanism) to become future interlopers in other star systems. Either way, we see the effect of comet ejection regularly, every few decades.
Since the Oort Cloud is much denser with comets compared to the density of wandering comets in interstellar space, most hyperbolic comets are going to be the latter type.
Machholz 1, if it is alien, was captured by the solar system some time in the past. Although this type of capture may be rare, since it would be going on since the formation of the solar system a substantial population of alien comets should have built up by this time, and captured aliens may be a more common sight than one-shot hyperbolic visitors.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj