First Interstellar Asteroid Spotted

[Traveller]

So now they can name the second one they find, "first loser."

 

[RGClark]

Perhaps someone could explain a confusion I have about the video by Tex in post #53. At about the 1:30 point in the video it looks like the asteroid is going backwards. Can someone explain that?

Bob Clark

 

[Linguofreak]

Perhaps someone could explain a confusion I have about the video by Tex in post #53. At about the 1:30 point in the video it looks like the asteroid is going backwards. Can someone explain that?

Basically, the camera is moving from roughly behind the object to roughly in front of it, so the object is travelling backwards relative to the camera (but continues to advance along its heliocentric trajectory).

 

[RGClark]

Basically, the camera is moving from roughly behind the object to roughly in front of it, so the object is travelling backwards relative to the camera (but continues to advance along its heliocentric trajectory).

Thanks. However, the appearance of moving backwards is also in relation to the planets in the inner Solar System.

I would like to see an interactive version where you could vary the angle and distance including zoom.

I was puzzled by the fact it came so close to the Sun to be bent around to curve back its trajectory. This has the effect of increasing the time it spends in the Solar System. But you could argue it came close enough to the Earth to be discovered which makes it likelier to get close to the Sun.

But it also seemed to get close to Jupiter at about the 1:06 point in the video. Jupiter has an 11 year period. It’s not likely it should get close to both Earth and Jupiter. However, because of the angle shown you can’t tell how far it is above the orbital plane during the Jupiter pass. I think it is actually high above the ecliptic during the Jupiter pass, judging from later viewpoints in the video. So it may be further away from Jupiter than it appears. This is another reason why an interactive video would be useful to answer this question.

It also seems to get close to Mars at about the 1:40 point. But again this is hard to tell because of the angle. An interactive video would be helpful here again as well.

Close passes by Jupiter, the Sun, Earth, and Mars. That can’t be right can it?

Bob Clark

 

[boogabooga]

An interactive video would be helpful here again as well.

Or an Orbiter scenario. I'll work on it at some point.

 

[RGClark]

Tony Dunn who runs the Orbitsimulator.com site, has come up with a pannable version of the Oumuamua trajectory:

http://orbitsimulator.com/gravitySimulatorCloud/simulations/oumuamua.html

It shows the asteroid doesn't really get close to Jupiter or Mars. It does get close to Venus but that's not unexpected given the relative nearness of the orbits of Earth and Venus.

Bob Clark

 

[jedidia]

It does get close to Venus

Protomolecule confirmed! :lol:

 

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42329244

Interstellar asteroid checked for alien technology

I feel safer already.

N.

 

[Messierhunter]

Or an Orbiter scenario. I'll work on it at some point.

I just made the following scenario, using the state vectors from JPL HORIZONS. I was surprised to find the Y and Z axes seem to be flipped between Orbiter and JPL, but substituting one for the other resulted in orbital elements in the scenario editor that matched JPL's elements. Propagating forward seems to result in reasonable accuracy in the earth encounter distance. I made Oumuamua a default DG, feel free to replace with your object of choice.


BEGIN_DESC

END_DESC

BEGIN_ENVIRONMENT
System Sol
Date MJD 51544.5000000000
END_ENVIRONMENT

BEGIN_FOCUS
Ship GL-01
END_FOCUS

BEGIN_CAMERA
TARGET GL-01
MODE Cockpit
FOV 50.00
END_CAMERA

BEGIN_HUD
TYPE Surface
END_HUD

BEGIN_MFD Left
TYPE Orbit
PROJ Ship
FRAME Ecliptic
REF Earth
END_MFD

BEGIN_MFD Right
TYPE Surface
SPDMODE 1
END_MFD

BEGIN_PANEL
END_PANEL

BEGIN_SHIPS
GL-01eltaGlider
STATUS Orbiting Sun
RPOS 2065928170411.40 12934667920252.10 -8189560682147.30
RVEL -3771.150 -22332.173 14064.550
AROT -52.67 -56.91 90.32
AFCMODE 7
PRPLEVEL 0:0.553000 1:0.900000
NAVFREQ 0 0 0 0
XPDR 0
AAP 0:0 0:0 0:0
END
END_SHIPS

So, what would be the best tool to use to plan an intercept in orbiter? Can IMFD or TransX do the job, or would something else work better?

 

[Messierhunter]

I was able to intercept it with the SLS and TransX, with a bit of jankiness.

 

[Notebook]

Interstellar object may hold 'alien' water

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42397398

N.

 

[Urwumpe]

And more so, scientists found out that despite its strange shape, it looks very much like objects in the Kuiper Belt, like Pluto, with a carbon-rich outer layer preventing ice from vaporizing in the sun.

 

[Notebook]

We should send a robot, drill that asteroid and bottle the water. People would pay a fortune for a Litre.
Alien Bottled Water, big sales(till the side-effects start showing).

N.

 

[Urwumpe]

We should send a robot, drill that asteroid and bottle the water. People would pay a fortune for a Litre.
Alien Bottled Water, big sales(till the side-effects start showing).

N.

Why not use the Coke Cola company way and sell water from the tap?

 

[Notebook]

The space interloper 'Oumuamua is spinning chaotically and will carry on doing so for more than a billion years.
That is the conclusion of new Belfast research that has examined in detail the light bouncing off the cigar-shaped asteroid from outside our Solar System.
"At some point or another it's been in a collision," says Dr Wes Fraser from Queen's University.
His team's latest study is featured in Sunday's Sky At Night episode on the BBC and published in Nature Astronomy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43018706

 

[boogabooga]

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddar...at-interstellar-visitor-oumuamua-can-teach-us

 

[statickid]

We should send a robot, drill that asteroid and bottle the water. People would pay a fortune for a Litre.
Alien Bottled Water, big sales(till the side-effects start showing).

N.

And probably the first people in line to pay that fortune would be scientists wishing to analyze it! :lol:

 

[Notebook]

27 June 2018
An object from another star system that made a brief appearance in our skies guised as an asteroid turns out to be a tiny interstellar comet.
‘Oumuamua, a name that reflects the Hawaiian meaning for ‘a messenger from afar, arriving first’, was discovered by astronomers working with the Pan-STARRS survey in Hawaii in October last year as the object came close to Earth’s orbit. Follow-up observations by ESA’s Optical Ground Station telescope in Tenerife, Canary Islands, and other telescopes around the world helped determine its trajectory.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Interstellar_asteroid_is_really_a_comet

 

[mahdavi3d]

It's Never Aliens... Until It Is

 

[Urwumpe]

Still, it would be very fascinating to ponder, if an alien spaceship wreck just drifted through our solar system... how could we tell it is one?