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First Extrasolar Object Observed Racing Through Our Solar System (space.com)
Enigma2175 writes: For the first time, scientists have observed an object they believe came from outside our solar system. The object is in a hyperbolic orbit that will send it back into interstellar space. From Space.com: "The object, known as A/2017 U1, was detected last week by researchers using the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii. 'It's long been theorized that such objects exist -- asteroids or comets moving around between the stars and occasionally passing through our solar system -- but this is the first such detection,' Chodas added. 'So far, everything indicates this is likely an interstellar object, but more data would help to confirm it.' It's unclear what exactly this thing is. When A/2017 U1 was first spotted, it was thought to be a comet (and was therefore given the moniker C/2017 U1). But further observations have revealed no evidence of a coma -- the fuzzy cloud of gas and dust surrounding a comet's core -- so the object's name was amended to its current asteroidal designation."
The first on many... :-)
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Arthur C. Clarke was right again!
The object definitely deserves a more prosaic name. Like Rama... :-)
How appropriate!
^(oo)^pig~
Just wait for the course correction
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Abduct her? I thought she was one of them. Maybe they're just coming back to pick her up after her failed mission to destroy the Earth. :)
"ALIENS!"
He's Winning!
lol.
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
Is it the size of Texas and is it slowing down? Because I think a movie predicted something like this would happen...
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
It's already heading out of the solar system, so no need to worry about any malicious intent. TFA says that it passed perihelion around Sep. 9. It was closest to the Earth on Oct 14, at about 15 million miles (24 million km, sorry don't have it in LOC). It's heading toward the constellation Pegasus at over 97000 mph. Maybe we'll send them a warning in a few years?
It's a bit unsettling that we didn't notice this until it had passed the earth at a relatively close distance, and passed through the plane of the ecliptic twice. I know the chances of an impact are very low, but the late detection indicates that we may be missing an unknown number of events like this, and may not be correct about estimates of the chances of being hit by one.
If they would take every politician and drop them into the Sun, I would give them a lot of leeway on the rest of their invasion plans.
The size of the Continental U.S. in relation to Texas in relation to UK in relation to New Jersey is 3000:260:90:7. Wales is about the same size as New Jersey.
So yes, the size of Texas in relation to the U.S. (apart from Alaska) is about the size of Wales in relation to U.K..
Interesting that it came in perpendicular to the ecliptic plane inside Mercury's orbit slingshots around the sun and then makes a b-line for Earth making a close approach at 15 million miles.
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
It may contain some protomolecule.
Maybe they're just coming back to pick her up after her failed mission to destroy the Earth. :)
What do you mean "failed"? She personally managed to get Donald Trump installed as the President of the United States of America.
I'd say that her mission to destroy the Earth is right on track.
And what's more, she is very humble and does not claim all the credit for herself, and is very thorough in citing the contributions of others who helped her get Trump elected so that he can destroy the Earth. Groups of people like white males, white females who think like white males, women of color who think like white women, Bernie Sanders, people who like Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, James Comey, Vladimir Putin, Sexism, Sex, people who like Sex, The New York Times, Russians, Uninformed Voters, Her Own Campaign Staff, The Democratic National Committee, Jill Stein, The Electoral College, Anthony Weiner, a Basket of Deplorables, Wikileaks, Women Under Pressure from Men, Partially Inflated Under Pressurized Women, Polygamous Ranch Kids, . . .
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Escape speed from 1 AU (Earth's orbital radius) is about 42 km/s. The speed of this object, stated as 156,400 km/h, is just over 43/km/h. Assuming the object is a bit more than 1 AU from the Sun right now, it will escape the solar system but not by a wide margin.
Can we ask them to take Trump back with them also?
This is the kind of event the space program ought to be better prepared for.
Even if this particular object may be be unreachable with current technology, we should have robotic probes that can approach and even crash into/land on objects that appear unexpectedly.
The Bugs send another meteor our way !
But this time we are ready !
Planetary defenses are better than ever !
Would you like to know more ?
#DeleteFacebook
...fired across our bow to get us to slow down and prepare to be boarded.
The "first" except for pretty much every single hyperbolic comet ever observed, right? The first as in not at all the first. The first in a meaning of the word first that does not, in fact, mean first.
The whole point of "hyperbolic orbit" is that it is an object that isn't bound to the sun, and objects that are not bound to the sun are by definition extrasolar. Yes, any given hyperbolic comet might have come out of the Oort cloud or some such from a previously bound orbit, but since we cannot tell what the origin of ANY such object really is by the time we see it at all, it is highly probable (at least) that many or most of these comets have been extrasolar objects and not just the results of collisions of bound objects making an unbound object.
Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
Elon !! you MUST land a probe on this , shame VOYAGER and vikings by going further faster
Wow, I had no idea that extrasolar object were so rare. I thought it was pretty common.
Usually, by looking at the trajectory of every asteroid you can easily simulate it's origin. Of course, that trajectory can be pushed by an external force (impact with another object, friction from gaz etc.) but, as far as I know, it's pretty rare. I'm also guessing that the trajectory of pretty much every object observed (asteroid/comet) so far have been simulated. And since it seem we observed over 500k asteroid so far (quick google search), it mean that extrasolar object are indeed very, very rare.
It's striking that our whole galaxy, with so many star and light in the night star, is, in reality, so empty.
Elok
And we still didn't see it until it was well on its way out of the solar system.
Sure, objects have been observed with hyperbolic orbits before. But I believe all of them have been shown to be comets and all had significant evidence that they had received a gravity boost from one of the planets kicking their orbits up JUST enough to exit the solar system. This one is not a comet, is way out of the plane of the planets (unlikely it has received any gravity boosts) and at least initial observations suggest it has more than enough energy to leave the solar system. So it is highly likely that all other hyperbolic objects were from the Oort cloud while this is very likely an object from interstellar space.
It's already speeding past Uranus!
I'm glad it didn't penetrate it.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Wow, I had no idea that extrasolar object were so rare. I thought it was pretty common.
Since "extrasolar" means outside the solar system every star, except the sun, we see is an "extrasolar object" and even if you exclude stars for some reason the exoplanets observed would still count. Then there are all the cosmic rays which are extrasolar objects too. So what you can say is that it is the first non-subatomic, extrasolar object observed in the solar system.
I typo'ed the day count. See subject line.
But as democratic aliens they couldn't know about that quaint US system where the popular vote doesn't count...
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
I guess the really interesting question is whether it's going to head out on the same vector it came in on, in which case it's most likely a flyby... everything else being really improbably likely to go out the way it came in.
I vote aliens.
If I were an Alien in charge of designing a close reconnaissance of Earth, I could not have planned a better trajectory than this.
Perhaps A/2017 U1's mothership will rendezvous just outside the oort cloud.
Earth is flat.
Aliens are fake too.
A signal was received from the artifact. NASAâ(TM)s super computers decoded the message. The message reads, âoeSend more Chuck Berryâ
It got close enough that earths gravity had a noticeable effect on its trajectory surprised no one else has picked up on this
Seems interesting, in an academic sense. But as we've been a spacefaring species for decades now and have NOTHING, apparently, ready to go to intercept and even get a good look at this thing, I'd say our leaders and intelligentsia dropped the ball on this one pretty embarrassingly.
In any case, please let me know if it emanates unexplained energy, (i.e., radio frequency or microwaves, etc.,) or appears to change course or speed other than in obvious and well-anticipated response to gravity, from, for example, the sun.
But yeah... we should have been ready for this kind of thing since like the 80s. We should have had a rocket fueled and ready to go to go take a look at any such thing as this as might present itself, because it sure would have been nice to be able to go and get an up-close look at such a thing as this, even all kidding aside, and speculation about Rama... just knowing its chemical makeup would have been nice. I'm not saying we should have had a rocket ready to go GET it, but one capable of landing on it, doing some chemical analysis, and radioing home might have been nice, and it could have said something like...
"Oh, hey guys. This rock is 78% platinum and 3% iridium, plus smaller amounts of lead, uranium, strontium, barium and gallium, plus traces of carbon and iron."
But now we'll just never know.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
There's no possibility of launching anything that could catch up to it now.
Maybe the aliens will come back, but if they do, it will probably only be their Intergalactic Pest Control Team coming to rid the planet of psychotic human infestations before they can spread to the rest of the universe...
Besides, Earth will make a pretty good vacation spot, once it's pet problem is corrected.
PlaynBass
Not much of a beeline. 15 million miles is nearly as far away as Venus at its closest (24 million miles). If it had been much further away, we probably wouldn't have detected it--which is another way of saying that there could be lots (like dozens) of these that pass through our solar system, and we only see the ones that seem to be coming relatively close.
Perhaps they didn't notice because Earth didn't have much of an effect. 15 million miles is a long ways.