First Interstellar Asteroid Spotted

[Marijn]

How could we be "more sure" without visiting it?

Can't we point a laser at it? To check whether we can burn a little hole in it to allow gasses to evaporate and cause a change in it's motion? Then it's most likely an asteroid.

If it doesn't burn easily and turns around headed for earth, then it's an alien spaceship.

There was an article in the news yesterday about a MIT student who proposes to attract aliens using a 1-2 megawatt laser and a 30- 45 meter telescope. That laser beam would be visible at a distance of 20.000 lightyears. That makes me wonder if we could use a laser at a much shorter distance to burn a little hole in an asteroid.

https://news.mit.edu/2018/laser-attract-alien-astronomers-study-1105

 

[jedidia]

Can't we point a laser at it? To check whether we can burn a little hole in it to allow gasses to evaporate and cause a change in it's motion? Then it's most likely an asteroid.

I didn't do the math, but considering the distance I would assume we'd need one hell of a laser to produce an evaporation large enough to measure from here...

If it doesn't burn easily and turns around headed for earth, then it's an alien spaceship.

Under those circumstances, I would *not* consider that a positive outcome! :rofl:

 

[Urwumpe]

I am pretty sure - even with the ELT mirror, the laser spot on the "target" would have multiple square meters of surface on a target about one AU away.

 

[4throck]

2010 comes to mind:
"Have you checked Discovery's orbit lately?"

 

[Notebook]

12 September 2019
Astronomers have spotted an object that looks likely to be a very rare visitor from outside our Solar System. If confirmed, this unusual body would be only the second interstellar object ever detected passing through our neighbourhood.
Like the fascinating cigar-shaped ʻOumuamua, which flew by in 2017, this bright object is also a comet, yet it cuts a very different shape in the sky.
The new object, dubbed C/2019 Q4, was first detected on 30 August by Gennady Borisov from the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Safety/Interstellar_2.0

That'll be Rama II.

 

[Notebook]

Astronomers are gathering measurements on a presumed interstellar comet, providing clues about its chemical composition.
The object, C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), is only the second interstellar object ever identified, after 'Oumuamua, which was spotted in 2017.
Telescopes across the world are being trained on the object.
Early results suggest its make-up might not differ that much from comets in our cosmic neighbourhood.
One expert told the BBC that the object was about to become one of the most famous comets in history.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49719696

 

[Kyle]

C/2019 Q4 must be huge compared to the previous interstellar object to be spotted 3 AU out. Size estimates range from 2-16km, compared to 'Oumuamua's <1km size.

 

[DaveS]

C/2019 Q4 must be huge compared to the previous interstellar object to be spotted 3 AU out. Size estimates range from 2-16km, compared to 'Oumuamua's <1km size.

That's nothing. Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) had a size estimate of approx 60 km (±20 km). Comet Halley (1p Halley) is 15x8 km. C/1995 O1's distance when it was discovered was at 7.2 AU.

 

[Notebook]

The first known comet to visit us from another star system has an unusual make-up, according to new research.
The interstellar comet 2I/Borisov was detected in our Solar System last year.
This mysterious visitor from the depths of space has provided astronomers with an unprecedented opportunity to compare it to comets that formed around the Sun.
New data suggests it contains large amounts of carbon monoxide - a possible clue to where it was "born".
The findings appear in two separate scientific papers published by Nature

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52353671

 

[mahdavi3d]

 

[Streptiziak]

In the South Cheshire Astronomical Society that I'm attending, we discussed that if a giant object like an asteroid is going to slam into our planet, we have a few options we could follow. We could hammer it with a spacecraft hard enough to knock it off course. But it depends on what its measure and speed are. We could blast the asteroid with nuclear weapons. We cannot be sure how it will influence us. We can also tug on it with a gravity tractor or slow it down using concentrated sunlight. And it's to be decided if there can be a scout mission first or an immediate attack. There are a lot of decisions that would have to be taken. It would be interesting to know what countries will have the final say on it.

 

[N_Molson]

In the South Cheshire Astronomical Society that I'm attending, we discussed that if a giant object like an asteroid is going to slam into our planet, we have a few options we could follow.

Welcome to Orbiter Forum

Yes problem is those objects come at high velocities and can be hard to detect... We're still there because space is insanely vast, and the odds of such a collision are very small. What can be done also depends of their structure, so spotting them is not enough.