Astroid from outside the solar system, or something else?

These cosmic balls of ice and dust, which were about the size of Halley's Comet and traveled about 100,000 miles per hour before they ultimately vaporized, are some of the smallest objects yet found outside our own solar system.

"We thought, the only kind of body that could do the same thing and not repeat is one that probably gets destroyed in the end," Rappaport says.

In other words, instead of orbiting around and around the star, the objects must have transited, then ultimately flown too close to the star, and vaporized.

"The only thing that fits the bill, and has a small enough mass to get destroyed, is a comet," Rappaport says.

The researchers calculated that each comet blocked about one-tenth of 1 percent of the star's light. To do this for several months before disappearing, the comet likely disintegrated entirely, creating a dust trail thick enough to block out that amount of starlight.

phys.org, Oct. 26, 2017 - Scientists detect comets outside our solar system.

In the "there is no such thing as coincidence" category...

The OP asked the question and some guy sifting through Kepler data had also asked "what can cause these kinds of readings?" a few months ago. They did the science part, made sure it was not noise in the data, and the team actually found a few more! Exo-comets exist!

They have automated searching for planets when collecting data. An algorithm flags the data and researchers go look and verify what they are seeing. They have found 2,400 planets that way. This was a volunteer combing through the data on his free time looking for items the computer might have overlooked. He did this by actually looking at the data (i.e., manual). There was a spike like when they spot a comet then a gradual increase then flat line. The only thing they could figure was a comet flying close to the sun and vaporizing.

How cool is that?

a reply to: wildespace

Since the oort cloud pretty much surrounds our star like a sphere, the object could still be from without, off the plane of the ecliptic, but from within, from the oort region.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: wildespace

Since the oort cloud pretty much surrounds our star like a sphere, the object could still be from without, off the plane of the ecliptic, but from within, from the oort region.

That would not explain how it managed to be such a strongly hyperbolic trajectory and it seems like an even less likely coincidence that it just so happens to be coming from the direction of the solar apex.

originally posted by: SpaceXIsReal

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: wildespace

Since the oort cloud pretty much surrounds our star like a sphere, the object could still be from without, off the plane of the ecliptic, but from within, from the oort region.

That would not explain how it managed to be such a strongly hyperbolic trajectory and it seems like an even less likely coincidence that it just so happens to be coming from the direction of the solar apex.

Thats Greek to me. If by that you mean the comet is coming form the direction the sun is traveling thru the galactic plane, thats not an exact science either, according to the link.

originally posted by: intrptr

originally posted by: SpaceXIsReal

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: wildespace

Since the oort cloud pretty much surrounds our star like a sphere, the object could still be from without, off the plane of the ecliptic, but from within, from the oort region.

That would not explain how it managed to be such a strongly hyperbolic trajectory and it seems like an even less likely coincidence that it just so happens to be coming from the direction of the solar apex.

Thats Greek to me. If by that you mean the comet is coming form the direction the sun is traveling thru the galactic plane, thats not an exact science either, according to the link.

The solar apex has been measured using multiple methods. It doesn't have to be exact down to the arcsecond, nor is it, but we know the general location and we know that this comet came from that direction give or take a few degrees. Are you really, really going to try to argue that mainstream science has the location of the solar apex so completely wrong that it's not within a few degrees of where this comet originated and that it's just a complete coincidence that it looks like the two coincide?

a reply to: SpaceXIsReal

Is there oort cloud in that direction too?

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: wildespace

Since the oort cloud pretty much surrounds our star like a sphere, the object could still be from without, off the plane of the ecliptic, but from within, from the oort region.

Plane of ecliptic versus the sphere of Oort cloud is irrelevant here. All that matters is comet's speed and trajectory with respect to the Sun. Oort cloud comets get just a gentle push from a passing star (or another comet, maybe) and fall towards the Sun at a slower rate, sometimes falling into a long-period orbit, and sometimes getting just enough of the push to exist the Solar System forever (weakly-hyperbolic trajectory).

This particular comet came in an much higher speed and strong hyperbolic trajectory, suggesting that it didn't get displaced from somewhere within the Solar System, but came zooming in from a whole other system.

a reply to: wildespace

Okay, suggesting it came from without. You also suggested a nudge form another star or comet. A collision by two objects within the oort could create such velocity, maybe?

If the orbital eccentricity is confirmed after enough observations have been collected, then I see no other sensible alternative to the "interstellar" suggestion. I guess it could have passed extremely close to Planet Nine, but that's stretching probability quite a bit!

latest info: A/2017 U1, size ~400 meter object

[

On September 2, the small body crossed under the ecliptic just inside of Mercury’s orbit and then made its closest approach to the Sun on September 9.
Pulled by the Sun’s gravity, the object made a hairpin turn under our solar system, passing below Earth’s orbit on October 14 at a distance of about 15 million miles (24 million kilometers)—about 60 times the distance to the Moon.

It has now shot back up above the plane of the planets and, travelling at 27 miles per second (44 kilometers per second) with respect to the Sun, the object is speeding toward the constellation Pegasus.

full story here:
www.dailygalaxy.com...

This being an asteroid rather than a comet definitely precludes it being from Oort cloud.

Phil Plait gives the low-down on this news in his latest blog: www.syfy.com...

www.youtube.com...

www.firstpost.com...
"The trajectory being followed by the object is very close to an interstellar spaceship from aliens in the book Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke. The object in the book was a probe that scouted out planets with intelligent species, and was a habitat enclosed in a hollow tube, a type of spaceship known as an O'Neill cylinder."

a reply to: Somekindofwizard

I was thinking -- if we had a pre-prepared probe ready to attach itself to another such object in the future, we could get almost a free ride out of the solar system, with a package of sensors / instruments or something, or even just attach ashes of dead people or whatever for an interstellar ride into the unknown.

This object is going out of the solar system. Wouldn't it be neat if this happens again, and if we can detect it soon enough, to hitch a ride next time?

Wouldn't it be cool to attempt to lands a probe on this object only to learn that since it's extrasolar it's composed of antimatter. Big fire works. Aha the wonders of the heavens.

a reply to: Nickn3

OMG. That would be ugly. Had not thought of that ... brilliant *pun intended*

originally posted by: Donkey_Dean"The trajectory being followed by the object is very close to an interstellar spaceship from aliens in the book Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke. The object in the book was a probe that scouted out planets with intelligent species, and was a habitat enclosed in a hollow tube, a type of spaceship known as an O'Neill cylinder."

Not really. It was not a "probe that scouted out planets with intelligent species" at all. It had ZERO interaction and apparently no interest at all in intelligent species. It used the Sun to catapult itself further on. No one in the book had a clue what it was for. The only thing the humans who boarded the thing found out was that the 'probe' species "did things in threes" so the book ended with the hope that we would have two more tries at subsequent ships.

a reply to: Donkey_Dean


that was the first of his I read......I liked the artists scene of inside the hugeous cylinder on the cover.....

originally posted by: Fowlerstoad
I was thinking -- if we had a pre-prepared probe ready to attach itself to another such object in the future, we could get almost a free ride out of the solar system, with a package of sensors / instruments or something, or even just attach ashes of dead people or whatever for an interstellar ride into the unknown.

This object is going out of the solar system. Wouldn't it be neat if this happens again, and if we can detect it soon enough, to hitch a ride next time?

If we could get up to the speeds to intercept it, we would not need to intercept it and just send our own probe out instead - your interceptor already has your instruments, engine and fuel to do it,why waste fuel and resources to attach it?

How does it change course?

originally posted by: burgerbuddy
How does it change course?

Gravitational slingshot, thanks to the Sun.