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Study of Recent Interstellar Asteroid Reveals Bizarre Shape (bbc.com)
JoeRobe writes: A few weeks ago an interstellar asteroid, now named "Oumuamua," was discovered passing through our solar system. Being the first interstellar asteroid to ever be observed, a flurry of observations soon followed. This week, an accelerated article in Nature reveals that Oumuamua is more bizarre than originally thought: it is elongated, with a 10:1 aspect ratio, and rapidly rotating. This conclusion is based upon comparisons of its time-dependent light curve to those from 20,000 known asteroids.
For all we know it could be a possible weapon which went haywire during an intra-galactic war somewhere between the Aliens...
Let's not name it or decide how weird it is yet, thanks.
They exist!
There are all these objects flying all over the place to various destinations, most of which we have no clue about. And they are traveling fast. Without propellant. On a fairly confident trajectory.
Would it be plausible for us to find an incoming object that is near enough not only to Earth when it passes by, but then also, say, near Mars, or Jupiter's moons?
I am by no means at all knowledgeable about space-fairing. But it seems to me this would be a, somewhat, easy shortcut. We've already landed on an asteroid, the next logical piece is to find a way to launch from it.
We will not be coming this time.
So a massive, rock-hard, spinning space phallus is penetrating our solar system? Hopefully it avoids us and finds its way to a Black Hole.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
The story leaves out the most important part, one we know by direct empirical evidence is more newsworthy than anything else: What kind of shirt was the spokesman wearing when he made the announcement? This critical piece of information is missing and we cannot possibly judge the impact of this news release without it.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b5/RedDwarfShip.jpg
Johnson: [Noticing Dr. Evil's spaceship on radar] Colonel, you better have a look at this radar
. Colonel: What is it, son?
Johnson: I don't know, sir, but it looks like a giant--
Jet Pilot: Dick.
Dick: Yeah?
Jet Pilot: Take a look out of starboard.
Dick: Oh my God, it looks like a huge--
Bird-Watching Woman: Pecker.
Bird-Watching Man: [raising binoculars] Ooh, Where?
Bird-Watching Woman: Wait, that's not a woodpecker, it looks like someone's--
Army Sergeant: Privates! We have reports of an unidentified flying object. It has a long, smooth shaft, complete with--
Baseball Umpire: Two balls.
[looking up from game]
Baseball Umpire: What is that. It looks just like an enormous--
Chinese Teacher: Wang, pay attention!
Wang: I was distracted by that giant flying--
Musician: Willie.
Willie Nelson: Yeah?
Musician: What's that?
Willie Nelson: [squints] Well, that looks like a giant--
Colonel: Johnson?!
Johnson: Yes, sir?
Colonel: Get on the horn to British Intelligence and let them know about this.
Later, as Dr. Evil is escaping: Basil: Did we get Dr. Evil?
Johnson: No, sir. He got away in that rocket that looks like a huge--
Schoolteacher: Penis. The male reproductive organ. Otherwise known as tallywhacker, schlong or--
Dad: Weiner? Any of you kids want another weiner?
Son: Dad? What's that? points at rocket
Dad: I don't know, son, but it's got great big--
Peanut seller: Nuts! Hot salty nuts! Who wants some-- Lord Almighty!
Woman: That looks just like my husband's--
Ringmaster: One-eyed monster! Step right up and see the One-Eyed Monster!
One-eyed Monster: jumps out and scares crowd, then points to the rocket Hey, what's that? It looks like a big--
female Fan: Woody! Woody Harrelson? Can I have an autograph?
Woody Harrelson: Sure thing. [Sees rocket] Oh my lord.
Female fan: It's big!
Woody: Nah, I've seen bigger, it's--
Dr. Evil: (To Mini-Me) Just a little prick. It's a flu shot. You've been in the coldness of space.
Would it not be wonderful to know that there is life out there, even if the probe they sent had been en route for millions of years?
Lets kickstart some money and give it to, say, SpaceX, to send a probe flyby the next one we detect! I'd pay good money for that. I mean, how expensive it'd be? You just need some quality instruments and a fast ship. No landing complexity, and being the inner solar system, not even celestial mechanical complexity (given we've successfully sent a probe to Pluto!)
No, I'm serious! Let's do it!
(and someone please observe this one for as long as possible, something tells me it's gonna start accelerating when it flies past Jupiter's orbit)
The artwork makes me think of the whale probe in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
It would seem, such "visitor" from outside of our Solar system would be a very interesting thing to study. Can we, perhaps, think up a way of capturing the next one somehow? Change the speed and direction of it just enough for it start orbiting the Moon, for example (too dangerous to mess with an Earth orbit, where a mistake can send it on our heads).
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
To be honest, we were all sort of hoping you would think of a way. So far you are letting us down.
the invasion is coming...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Is it rotating at 4 RPM? Is it around 34 miles long? Unfortunately, we don't have any craft like the solar survey vessel Endeavour to intercept it. There will be another extrasolar intruder almost like this in about another 70 years.
RAMA!
... so it's just a turd.
The shape so reminiscent of a Culture Mind ship .
Why is Snark Required?
...do doo, dododoo!
It's a spaceship!
KIRK: Scotty, we've got to find some humpbacks. SCOTT: Humpbacked ...people? KIRK: Whales, Mister Scott, whales!
From the looks of it that thing could be fossilized spaceship
Only the maximum and minimum moments of inertia are stable in rotation. If you try to spin an object around any other axis, it will tumble - the axis of rotation varies relative to the body. Every spacecraft or satellite that's launched had some poor slob whose job was to get the exact mass, location, and inertia tensor of every single component put into the spacecraft, and put it into a huge spreadsheet. Then he uses that to calculate the minimum and maximum moments of inertia of the spacecraft. If the desired spin axis doesn't line up with either of these moments, then he has to change the location of some of the components of the spacecraft until it does (like positioning weights on a tire when you balance it)..
With round or nearly round objects, the min/max moment of inertia isn't very different from from the inertia around other axes, so this oscillation tends to be very slow and not noticeable. But it's much more likely to be pronounced with an elongated and flattened body.
It'd be hilarious if it turned out to be a generational ship hit by a chunk of space debris that made it spin out of control, and we couldn't tell - just a foreign asteroid passing through our solar system. Whoops.
...and they're slightly off, it doesn't have a 10:1 aspect ratio, it's 9:4:1.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Let's not name it or decide how weird it is yet, thanks.
Really ... what the fuck is that name anyway. At least give us a name we can pronounce.
FTFY. If you'd read anything about this, you'd know it's not from outside the milky way. They think it's from where Vega used to be a long time ago.
Should bei called Rama.
'Oumuamua' means "a messenger from afar arriving first" in Hawaiian.
You can't even write it on Slasdot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The common name ÊOumuamua was chosen by the Pan-STARRS team. The name is Hawaiian in origin ("Êou" means "reach out for", and "mua", with the second "mua" placing emphasis, means "first, in advance of"), and reflects the nature of the object as a "scout" or "messenger" from the past.[4] The first character is a Hawaiian Êokina, not an apostrophe.
Seems quiche-eatery to me
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Let's not name it or decide how weird it is yet, thanks.
With all this flood of celebrities and politicians admitting to sexual harassment . . . now we even start off on innocent interstellar flying objects!
Where will this Harassment Hell ever end . . . ?
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
You can't even write it on Slasdot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Sure you can.`Oumuamua. That's an Okina before the O. According to [1] you can use a grave accent or an apostrophe when the correct typographical mark is not available.
I'm not an authority but that seem somewhat akin to whether the dots – e.g. over the e in ë – is called an umlaut or a diaeresis.It depends on whether you're using it in English or in German.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okina
They think it's from where Vega used to be a long time ago.
Damned annoying Vegans! Can't they let us eat in peace? They have to send us a giant interstellar carrot?
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
...and they're slightly off, it doesn't have a 10:1 aspect ratio, it's 9:4:1.
I am a member of the intergalactic consortium that founded the Open UFO Specifications Society, and it just happens that those are the ideal flying saucer dimensions, as defined by the latest review version of the OUFOSS-1.2.
. . . except Sol. The locals aren't worth bothering. . . .
If God could write the bible in English and use only 7 bit ASCII characters, they should be enough for anyone.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
it was written in ancient greek not english
If God could write the bible in English and use only 7 bit ASCII characters, they should be enough for anyone.
This is why I should have posted AC – so I could mod your stupid ass post down.
This is essentially the prelude of the book Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke.
The reason why we know this is from outside the solar system is that it is moving much too fast for anything that was ever part of the solar system. `Oumuamua has a solar velocity excess (V_infinity) of 26 km/sec.
The fastest thing (in terms of V_infinity) we have ever sent by rocket technology is the little New Horizons probe at 16 km/sec. Even rendezvousing with any of these objects is going to be a major undertaking. This would require a mission (or more likely missions) kept ready to go on mere days notice to send a probe in chase as it heads back out. The extremely high probe velocity required would probably call for an ion drive or other exotic propulsion option.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
Let's not name it or decide how weird it is yet, thanks.
Really ... what the fuck is that name anyway. At least give us a name we can pronounce.
FTA: oh MOO-uh MOO-uh
Now, you too can sound erudite at the office water cooler.
Segue to the "I'm a cow" poster.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
OOH WALLAH WALLAH
FTFY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Whoosh!
again,
Whoosh!
Those who are actually informed about the story are aware that at any moment there are 10,000 interstellar objects like this one in the Solar System. Three of them enter [and an equal number leave] the Solar System every single day.
Oh, has anyone noticed that they move at 110,000 km per hour in a hyperbolic trajectory?
The band can then accelerate you to the asteroid's speed at an acceptable pace!
Duh!
Why does everyone here always cling.to thinking in the tiny box in a box that is his rigid programming? Stop being a fixed-function robot and be at least an android!
According to South Park, it means it's now time to go buy yourself a Prius.
#DeleteFacebook
That right there is an ironic reply that could apply to 96.145% of the posts on Slashdot.
#DeleteFacebook
Or 7:1, or 8:1, or 10:1. Whatever.
Which "mua" means "from afar", and which "mua" means "arriving first"?
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
It is just new marketing action for the new movie:
Rendezvous with Rama
Possibly a derelict drifting through space.
Aw I see its been named I would of suggested Meteorite mcmeteorite face! XD
Switch it Off,Switch it On[SOSO] Solves 95% of all IT problems!
http://www.nexusroute.co.uk/wp... or Cheech & Chongs new movie "Up In Space"
Some people though just like to jump to conclusions. Sign of the times...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42WNHGr1jGI
we have ever sent by rocket technology
It's good that you qualified that statement. We could catch it with a manhole cover.
Have gnu, will travel.
come about with that shape? I think it is artificial.
Interstellar asteroid with a 10:1 ratio, 400m long and rapidly rotating...
Sounds like an Earth ship. Be curious to calculate the equivalent gravity of the rotational speed if the asteroid was hollow. Also, what is the mass, density.
Here come the "other guys" from Outer Space.
I'm not a rocket scientist. But it would seem, making contact with an interstellar rock — and even forcing it to change speed/direction enough to become a Moon's satellite — would be more achievable than a meaningful Mars expedition.
It does not have to be this one — according to an anonymous reply here, there are thousands of such objects passing through the Solar system on any given day. We could pick and choose something, that would only require an achievable delta-V to be caught...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Hawaiian doesn't really work like that. It's an oddly poetic language, even in the debased form we find it today. Repetition for emphasis is very common. The "from afar" part probably arises from the repetition.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
alien generation starship anyone?
Literal translation would be: "First Far Far", while "messenger" is implied.
Note: I have no clue what I am talking about, take this as a bad attempt at a joke.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
The velocity excess of 26.33 km/sec makes it 'faster' (more total energy) relative to the Sun than any man-made object. This velocity is fairly typical for random stellar motions relative to each other in our region of the galaxy (with 5 km/sec of the average). This is a bit less that 0.01% c so travelling a few light years takes a few tens of thousands of years.
Now if this an alien spaceship that was travelling much faster but simply braked to this velocity before making this approach to the Sun, to study us, it is interesting to think when they might have completed the braking maneuver. If it did so 10 AU out then it completed the maneuver a year ago, if it was 100 AU out then it was a bit less than 20 years ago. Of course now we know where it is and where it is going we are going to "keep watching the skies" where it disappeared so it a propulsion motor turns on it will have to be quite some distance out to escape detection.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
I know we all don't want to get our hopes up but there doesn't seem to be much serious discussion on this possibly being an alien probe.
So far nothing has ruled it out and what we have gathered has revealed some interesting information...
1. The course it took isn't a simple maneuver. It can happen by accident but it's quite interesting that it took a fairly close flyby of Earth. Not too close for us to get a good read on it though or for it to hit the planet. Given the ranges and complexities involved of sending a probe like that, the distance is not something that would need a particularly special explanation. It's definitely a good enough distance to get a really good read on our planet. It's course also swings it back on a similar trajectory it came from which you would expect from an alien probe. None of this is perfect or massively raises the chance of it being an alien probe but it definitely doesn't leave us with much to rule it out easily.
2. When it passed by the sun, it emitted no mass which is some what unusual. It's not something that can happen that uncommonly by nature but it is another thing where we can't easily rule out its artificial nature. It is also unusually dark although that's only a slight thing to consider in it being artificial.
3. The size is around viable for an interstellar probe. However it's now the shape that has really raised some interesting questions. A highly unusual shape that's pretty much never seen in nature. It's basically, well, space ship shaped, long an thin. There is a question of why such an object might rotate. Given how close it passed to the sun that is one way to spread the radiation. It could also be to induce artificial gravity but that's unlikely for an interstellar probe which would usually be unoccupied. It could also be that it's not important.
It's a real shame we can't check it out more closely because although the chances are extremely remote it's still the best legitimate candidate for possible alien contact we've ever had. The UFO buffs should really be more excited about it.
It sounds like a great name for a typical cocktail.
The asteroid moves 26 kilometers per second when in interstellar space. Closest to the sun it went a fair clip faster at 87 kilometers a second. That's 55 miles. Each and every second. New York to Los Angeles in 45 seconds. This thing is, well, rather rapid. To catch up you need to go quite a bit faster than it. We can't do that.
Another reason its nor a part of the solar system
Why didn't they call it "Rama" ?
Reduplication is used in many many (ahem) languages for emphasis. Think "in a galaxy far, far away."
It wasn't enough for the missionaries who went to Hawai`i in the 1820s. They decided to translate the Bible into Hawai`an.
BTW, the backwards apostrophe stands for a glottal stop, the sound English has in the middle (and usually the beginning) of oh-oh.
and Hebrew, and a little Aramaic.