Latest news with #Oumuamua
Hans India
3 days ago
- Science
- Hans India
What is Oumuamua? 6 Fascinating Facts About the First Interstellar Visitor to Our Solar System
In 2017, astronomers made a groundbreaking discovery: the first known interstellar object to pass through our solar system. Named 'Oumuamua—a Hawaiian word meaning 'a messenger from afar arriving first'—this mysterious object has intrigued scientists and the public alike ever since. Here are six key facts about this cosmic visitor. 1. Discovery That Changed Astronomy Oumuamua was detected on October 19, 2017, by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS1 telescope. Officially designated 1I/2017 U1 by the International Astronomical Union, it was first classified as an asteroid before further analysis revealed behavior more akin to a comet, due to its unexpected acceleration. 2. Unusual Shape and Speed Oumuamua is estimated to be up to 400 meters long and unusually elongated—possibly ten times longer than it is wide. Its reddish hue is similar to many distant solar system objects. What stunned astronomers further was its rapid rotation every 7.3 hours and dramatic brightness variations. It was clocked moving at a staggering speed of 196,000 miles per hour (87.3 km/s). 3. A Dry, Mysterious Surface Unlike typical comets, Oumuamua displayed no visible gas or dust, which left astronomers puzzled. Its dry, metallic or rocky surface lacked the comet-like tail typically seen in icy bodies, leading researchers to suggest it had been bombarded by cosmic rays for millions of years during its interstellar journey. 4. Anomalous Acceleration After its closest approach to the Sun on September 9, 2017, Oumuamua began accelerating in a way that couldn't be fully explained by gravity alone. This unexpected movement sparked debate over its true nature—was it a comet, an asteroid, or something entirely different? Though it entered from the direction of the Lyra constellation, its origin remains unknown. 5. Natural Object—or Alien Tech? Some experts, most notably Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, suggested Oumuamua could be a piece of alien technology, such as a light sail. While this theory captured the public imagination, the dominant scientific consensus holds that it is a natural object—perhaps a fragment of a hydrogen ice body or a 'dark comet' unlike any seen before. 6. A Fleeting Visitor with a Long Legacy After briefly visiting the inner solar system, Oumuamua is now heading toward the constellation Pegasus, having already passed Mars's orbit by late 2017. It's expected to exit the solar system entirely by 2038. Scientists believe such interstellar objects may pass through our solar system roughly once a year, but most remain undetected due to their small size and speed.
Spectator
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Amid the alien corn: Beautyland, by Marie-Helene Bertino
'I am an Adina,' the four-year-old protagonist of Marie-Helene Bertino's Beautyland writes to her extraterrestrial superiors on Planet Cricket Rice, which is light years away from Earth. 'Yesterday I saw bunnies on the grass,' she adds, using the fax machine her mother retrieved from their neighbour's trash. 'DESCRIBE BUNNIES,' they respond, sparking a dialogue that continues well into her adulthood. Adina's premature birth in September 1977 coincided with the departure of the Voyager 1 probe, which was launched with a phonograph record of sounds intended to explain human life to intelligent extra-terrestrials. The timing is significant because Adina was sent to Earth from Planet Cricket Rice to report on human life. Or so she thinks – for speculative fiction, Beautyland, which takes its title from a 'dash-to-in-a-pinch supply store that contains what humans believe are necessities', is strongly grounded in realism. Bertino's third novel, published in the US last year, intersperses Adina's story with news flashes from the intergalactic front line, from the 1991 discovery of exoplanets outside our solar system to the 2017 revelation of the interstellar asteroid Oumuamua. Like E.T. (Adina will later watch the film at the cinema, bemoaning the choice of popcorn – 'the loudest sound on Earth'– as the official food of movie-watching), she longs to return home. She has faith that this will happen, despite growing up in north-eastern Pennsylvania with her single Sicilian mother, Térèse. Adina keeps her alien existence mainly to herself, but before quitting college to move to New York she tries to tell Térèse the truth:
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
This spacecraft swarm could spot interstellar visitors zipping through our solar system
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. In 2017, scientists spotted our solar system's first confirmed interstellar visitor: 'Oumuamua. While not an alien spacecraft, 'Oumuamua was an interstellar object (ISO), which came from another planetary system far, far away — and traveled at the blazingly fast speed of 196,000 miles per hour (315,431 kilometers per hour). To prepare for future visitors, Hiroyasu Tsukamota, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has developed a deep-learning-based guidance and control framework called Neural-Rendezvous that could allow spacecraft to safely encounter ISOs. The project, a collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, tackles the two main challenges of approaching an ISO: the extraordinary speed of these objects and their poorly constrained trajectories. "We're trying to encounter an astronomical object that streaks through our solar system just once and we don't want to miss the opportunity," Tsukamoto said in a statement. "Even though we can approximate the dynamics of ISOs ahead of time, they still come with large state uncertainty because we cannot predict the timing of their visit. That's a challenge." Neural-Rendezvous would allow a spacecraft to "think" on its feet as it approaches an ISO, much in the way the human brain works while driving. "Our key contribution is not just in designing the specialized brain, but in proving mathematically that it works," said Tsukamota. "For example, with a human brain we learn from experience how to navigate safely while driving. But what are the mathematics behind it? How do we know and how can we make sure we won't hit anyone?" Intrigued by the potential of Neural-Rendezvous, two Illinois undergraduates, Arna Bhardwaj and Shishir Bhatta, developed an idea to implement the framework into not just a single spacecraft, but a swarm of them. 'How do you optimally position multiple spacecraft to maximize the information you can get out of it?" said Tsukamoto. "Their solution was to distribute the spacecraft to visually cover the highly probable region of the ISO's position, which is driven by Neural-Rendezvous." Related Stories: — Where did the interstellar object 'Oumuamua come from?— Could the solar system be teeming with interstellar objects? We'll soon find out (op-ed)— Self-docking spacecraft could be built with AI system similar to ChatGPT Using M-STAR multi-spacecraft simulators and tiny drones called Crazyflies, Bhardwaj and Bhatta put the concept to the test, demonstrating the potential of a Neural-Rendezvous-guided swarm. "[W]hile the Neural-Rendezvous is more of a theoretical concept, their work is our first attempt to make it much more useful, more practical," said Tsukamoto. The duo presented their paper at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Aerospace Conference this month.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
This spacecraft swarm could spot interstellar visitors zipping through our solar system
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. In 2017, scientists spotted our solar system's first confirmed interstellar visitor: 'Oumuamua. While not an alien spacecraft, 'Oumuamua was an interstellar object (ISO), which came from another planetary system far, far away — and traveled at the blazingly fast speed of 196,000 miles per hour (315,431 kilometers per hour). To prepare for future visitors, Hiroyasu Tsukamota, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has developed a deep-learning-based guidance and control framework called Neural-Rendezvous that could allow spacecraft to safely encounter ISOs. The project, a collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, tackles the two main challenges of approaching an ISO: the extraordinary speed of these objects and their poorly constrained trajectories. "We're trying to encounter an astronomical object that streaks through our solar system just once and we don't want to miss the opportunity," Tsukamoto said in a statement. "Even though we can approximate the dynamics of ISOs ahead of time, they still come with large state uncertainty because we cannot predict the timing of their visit. That's a challenge." Neural-Rendezvous would allow a spacecraft to "think" on its feet as it approaches an ISO, much in the way the human brain works while driving. "Our key contribution is not just in designing the specialized brain, but in proving mathematically that it works," said Tsukamota. "For example, with a human brain we learn from experience how to navigate safely while driving. But what are the mathematics behind it? How do we know and how can we make sure we won't hit anyone?" Intrigued by the potential of Neural-Rendezvous, two Illinois undergraduates, Arna Bhardwaj and Shishir Bhatta, developed an idea to implement the framework into not just a single spacecraft, but a swarm of them. 'How do you optimally position multiple spacecraft to maximize the information you can get out of it?" said Tsukamoto. "Their solution was to distribute the spacecraft to visually cover the highly probable region of the ISO's position, which is driven by Neural-Rendezvous." Related Stories: — Where did the interstellar object 'Oumuamua come from?— Could the solar system be teeming with interstellar objects? We'll soon find out (op-ed)— Self-docking spacecraft could be built with AI system similar to ChatGPT Using M-STAR multi-spacecraft simulators and tiny drones called Crazyflies, Bhardwaj and Bhatta put the concept to the test, demonstrating the potential of a Neural-Rendezvous-guided swarm. "[W]hile the Neural-Rendezvous is more of a theoretical concept, their work is our first attempt to make it much more useful, more practical," said Tsukamoto. The duo presented their paper at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Aerospace Conference this month.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Mysterious cloud at solar system's edge found to host strange ‘mini galaxy'
The mysterious cloud of space rocks and debris at the edge of the solar system may have spiral arms, making it resemble a mini galaxy, a new study says. The Oort cloud is a theoretical debris shell at the gravitational edge of the solar system whose origin could shed more light on the source of comets as well as the origin of our neighbouring planets. It is estimated to exist 2,000 to 5,000 astronomical units away, with 1 AU being the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The giant cloud of detritus is thought to be the source of strange comets and meteorites flying past Earth such as the mysterious cigar-shaped rock known as Oumuamua that was spotted in October 2017. Previous research has suggested that the Oort cloud contains remnants of the solar system's planets, which were formed over 4 billion years ago, but its exact shape and structure have been a mystery. A new, yet-to-be peer-reviewed study suggests this cloud of debris may look like a mini galaxy with spiral arms. Researchers used a supercomputer to model the structure of the Oort cloud based on the trajectories of comets as well as the gravitational forces within and beyond our solar system. They particularly tried to model the pull on objects at the edge of the solar system by the "galactic tide". This is the gravitational pull exerted by objects like stars and the monster black hole at the galaxy's centre on the Oort cloud's objects, but not on the solar system's planets, which are pulled more strongly by our Sun. When researchers used Nasa's Pleiades supercomputer to simulate these forces, it modelled the Oort cloud as containing an inner structure similar to the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy. The spiral arms of the Oort cloud shown in the model stretched 15,000 AU end to end. 'As the Galactic tide acts to decouple bodies from the scattered disk it creates a spiral structure in physical space that is roughly 15,000 AU in length,' the study says. 'The spiral is long-lived and persists in the inner Oort cloud to the present time,' it adds while noting that 'direct observational detection of the Oort spiral is difficult'.
