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object may be our first visitor from another solar system

Forums: Science, Space, Astronomy
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edgarblythe
 
Reply Fri 27 Oct, 2017 04:19 pm
Astronomers around the world are trying to track down a small, fast-moving object that is zipping through our solar system.
Is a comet? An asteroid? NASA's not sure. The space agency doesn't even know where it came from, but it's not behaving like the local space rocks and that means it may not be from our solar system.
If that's confirmed, NASA says "it would be the first interstellar object to be observed and confirmed by astronomers."

"We have been waiting for this day for decades," Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, said in a NASA news release.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/this-mystery-object-may-be-our-first-visitor-from-another-solar-system/ar-AAu89Vo?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp
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Type: Discussion • Score: 8 • Views: 1,582 • Replies: 12
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rosborne979
 
  1  
Reply Fri 27 Oct, 2017 04:28 pm
@edgarblythe,
It's moving fast. Barely enough time to say Aloha before it's gone.
0 Replies
 
Olivier5
 
  2  
Reply Fri 27 Oct, 2017 09:56 pm
The first one we've been able to spot, to be more precise.
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Fri 27 Oct, 2017 10:05 pm
@Olivier5,
The articles makes that point.
Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Fri 27 Oct, 2017 10:48 pm
Cool beans, EB, thanks.
0 Replies
 
Olivier5
 
  1  
Reply Fri 27 Oct, 2017 11:11 pm
@edgarblythe,
It does.
TomTomBinks
 
  1  
Reply Fri 27 Oct, 2017 11:45 pm
@Olivier5,
Awesome opportunity for study. Where did it originate? How did it come to leave it's home system? Too bad we couldn't intercept it and bring it back for closer study.
ekename
 
  1  
Reply Fri 27 Oct, 2017 11:52 pm
Amusingly:

"It was discovered October 19 by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS 1 telescope on Haleakala, Hawaii.

NASA say that on October 14, it safely passed our home world at a distance of about 15 million miles ."

Discovered 5 days later, no wonder my tin hat was playing up.
0 Replies
 
Olivier5
 
  1  
Reply Sat 28 Oct, 2017 12:08 am
@TomTomBinks,
What amazes me is how close from us it flew by. I must admit I wondered about whether it was an artifact. Seems just a snowball though.

In theory, comets can be swung outside their star system when they fly near massive planets, which alter their orbit. Supposedly that's what happened here.
TomTomBinks
 
  1  
Reply Sat 28 Oct, 2017 08:27 am
@Olivier5,
This proves that objects can get from system to system. Lends more credibility to the panspermia idea.
Olivier5
 
  1  
Reply Sat 28 Oct, 2017 09:05 am
@TomTomBinks,
Interesting angle... Big fan of panspermia here. :-)
0 Replies
 
Olivier5
 
  1  
Reply Sat 28 Oct, 2017 09:22 am
@Olivier5,
Apologies -- it seems to be an asteroid ie a rocky object rather than a comet ie a snowy object.
0 Replies
 
cameronleon
 
  -3  
Reply Sat 28 Oct, 2017 09:23 am
What is calling me the attention is the hyperbole made by the body.
0 Replies
 
 

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