WOW! Recent extra-solar passerby -- a 'highly-elongated', maybe 'high-metal-content' object.

This has just gotten a WHOLE LOT more interesting -- and needs serious attention. No tricks, I'm genuinely intrigued.

Text, Images & Video:
www.eso.org...

ESO OBSERVATIONS SHOW FIRST INTERSTELLAR ASTEROID IS LIKE NOTHING
SEEN BEFORE: VLT REVEALS DARK, REDDISH AND HIGHLY-ELONGATED OBJECT

For the first time ever astronomers have studied an asteroid that has entered the solar system from interstellar space. Observations from ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile and other observatories around the world show that this unique object was traveling through space for millions of years before its chance encounter with our star system. It appears to be a dark, reddish, highly-elongated rocky or high-metal-content object. The new results appear in the journal Nature on 20 November 2017.

On 19 October 2017, the Pan-STARRS (en.wikipedia.org...) 1 telescope in Hawai`i picked up a faint point of light moving across the sky. It initially looked like a typical fast-moving small asteroid, but additional observations over the next couple of days allowed its orbit to be computed fairly accurately. The orbit calculations revealed beyond any doubt that this body did not originate from inside the solar system, like all other asteroids or comets ever observed, but instead had come from interstellar space. Although originally classified as a comet, observations from ESO and elsewhere revealed no signs of cometary activity after it passed closest to the Sun in September 2017. The object was reclassified as an interstellar asteroid and named 1I/2017 U1 (`Oumuamua) [1].

“We had to act quickly,” explains team member Olivier Hainaut from ESO in Garching, Germany. “`Oumuamua had already passed its closest point to the Sun and was heading back into interstellar space.”

ESO’s Very Large Telescope (www.eso.org...) was immediately called into action to measure the object’s orbit, brightness and colour more accurately than smaller telescopes could achieve. Speed was vital as `Oumuamua was rapidly fading as it headed away from the Sun and past the Earth’s orbit, on its way out of the solar system. There were more surprises to come.

Combining the images from the FORS instrument (www.eso.org...) on the VLT using four different filters with those of other large telescopes, the team of astronomers led by Karen Meech (Institute for Astronomy, Hawai`i, USA) found that `Oumuamua varies dramatically in brightness by a factor of 10 as it spins on its axis every 7.3 hours.

Karen Meech explains the significance: “This unusually large variation in brightness means that the object is highly elongated: about ten times as long as it is wide, with a complex, convoluted shape. We also found that it has a dark red colour, similar to objects in the outer solar system, and confirmed that it is completely inert, without the faintest hint of dust around it.”

These properties suggest that `Oumuamua is dense, possibly rocky or with high metal content, lacks significant amounts of water or ice, and that its surface is now dark and reddened due to the effects of irradiation from cosmic rays over millions of years. It is estimated to be at least 400 metres long.

Preliminary orbital calculations suggested that the object had come from the approximate direction of the bright star Vega (en.wikipedia.org...), in the northern constellation of Lyra (en.wikipedia.org...). However, even travelling at a breakneck speed of about 95,000 kilometres/hour, it took so long for the interstellar object to make the journey to our solar system that Vega was not near that position when the asteroid was there about 300,000 years ago. `Oumuamua may well have been wandering through the Milky Way, unattached to any star system, for hundreds of millions of years before its chance encounter with the solar system.

Astronomers estimate that an interstellar asteroid similar to `Oumuamua passes through the inner solar system about once per year, but they are faint and hard to spot so have been missed until now. It is only recently that survey telescopes, such as Pan-STARRS, are powerful enough to have a chance to discover them.

“We are continuing to observe this unique object,” concludes Olivier Hainaut, “and we hope to more accurately pin down where it came from and where it is going next on its tour of the galaxy. And now that we have found the first interstellar rock, we are getting ready for the next ones!”

a reply to: JimOberg

That is one crazy looking artist rendition of this object...

Very intriguing! Can't wait to find out more about this.

a reply to: JimOberg


Interesting name.

The interstellar interloper will now be referred to as 'Oumuamua, which means "a messenger from afar arriving first" in Hawaiian.
www.bbc.co.uk...

a reply to: JimOberg

Listen: If that thing isn't tumbling on one or more axis then it is artificially controlled.

If rotating only on one axis, then that motion may be inducing an artificial gravity on to the ship.

If traveling smoothly as a bullet, one end first, then it is a ship with artificial gravity for the beings aboard.

The descriptions reminds me of this.

They say its a interstellar rock..
I guess we can only trust that.
Could not find any information about if there will be pictures of the rock in the future ?

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: JimOberg

Listen: If that thing isn't tumbling on one or more axis then it is artificially controlled.

If rotating only on one axis, then that motion may be inducing an artificial gravity on to the ship.

If traveling smoothly as a bullet, one end first, then it is a ship with artificial gravity for the beings aboard.

59,000 miles per hour (95,000 kilometers per hour) is stooooopid slow for interstellar travel. Do you suppose they slowed down to get a better look at our solar system?

And if so then why wouldn’t hey go into orbit around earth at least a few times for observational purposes? Seems a bit of a waste to just fly straight by doesn’t it?

Well its not Red Dwarf, mores the pity, what a sensation that would have been !

At least others out there disguise their probes as natural objects while we just wave and send invites to just anyone! Not a good idea!
So this should probably not pass through again I would think?

Wonder if it's hollow and has a lake going around the middle on the inside.

Anyway, I think SETI should take a look at it.

In the link I see it's an artists interpretation of the object. Never the less, one might find the interpretation suggestive of the actual shape and composition.. Something this big would vaporize an object if it were to collide with it. Like Earth....

I couldn't get the links for the observatory to work.

a reply to: Alien Abduct

And if so then why wouldn’t hey go into orbit around earth at least a few times for observational purposes? Seems a bit of a waste to just fly straight by doesn’t it?

What if it isn't a they but an it ?
Perhaps the messenger from afar was a scout for those arriving later.

It's most likely just an interesting piece of space rock , doesn't mean it isn't Aliens though.

Here's a video description, somewhere in the video, the auto voice mentions the shape as very elongated..while saying that it is *no longer that twice it's width, so maybe that's a comparison to what's usually detected.

So either that's wrong, or that the artist impression in the link overstates the length in appearing to look long and slender??



*Should be, only three times longer than it is wide...(The English accent caught me out ) still, not so pencil thin looking.

The other thing is, if it has travelled so far, you wonder if it has ever contacted anything else, and if it has, is this just a 'sliver' of something much larger.

If it has crossed interstellar distances -- and its eccentricity is only a teeny bit higher than 1 so a solar-associated origin remains possible -- than it has physical traces on its surface of stuff it has encountered. An Earth-launched probe could overtake it within fifty years if the project began now, but would need to bring its own lighting to use when it got there

a reply to: Spacespider

From its changing brightness, the team inferred that U1 is highly elongated with rough dimensions 30m x 30m x 180m. About twice the height of the Statue of Liberty, the 6:1 aspect ratio of U1 is "similar to the proportions of a fire extinguisher -- although U1 is not as red as that," says David Jewitt (UCLA), the first author of the study.

"With such an elongated shape, U1 probably needs a little cohesive strength to hold it together. But that's not really unusual," remarked study coauthor Jayadev Rajagopal (National Optical Astronomy Observatory). Commenting on its size, rotation, and color, Rajagopal mused that, "the most remarkable thing about U1 is that, except for its shape, how familiar and physically unremarkable it is."

Spaceref.com - 1I/2017 U1 'Oumuamua - A Familiar-Looking Messenger From Another Solar System.

There is a picture (NOAO) with the article but you will be disappointed as it is just a bright spot in the center of the photo.

Interesting shape! "Like a fire extinguisher..." Well, I'm glad it was not a "life extinguisher"!

a reply to: Alien Abduct

Oh, such a typically human response. First, you are woefully incorrect in your "...a waste to just fly straight by..." comment.
Seriously, it is looping around the sun in an open orbit that would not return again if classical orbital theory is assumed. but to go with that narrow thinking would be a mistake if attempting to apply it to a ship that has simply arrived straight in toward the sun from a distant, non-solar motion.

Back to another point of yours: Let us assume that they have something like SOL locomotion up to the approach of our system. Coming to a visited star, they reverse the process to exactly the orbit to what is required by physics and go all natural. That means they lower the velocity and chose the correct angle of approach that goes hand in hand with the velocity. What they "want" would also depend upon what their ship can handle, be it getting close to the visited sun or be it close (not too close) to the selected planets planned to be checked out. Some of these point to be considered by a star-traveling alien ship may be outside the reasoning power of ATS posters.

As I said, the orbit is indicative, the rotation or tumbling of the ship will tell us maybe more than we want to know. Actually, it is not likely that the public will be told the truth it the motion indicates intelligent control.

originally posted by: JimOberg
If it has crossed interstellar distances -- and its eccentricity is only a teeny bit higher than 1 so a solar-associated origin remains possible -- than it has physical traces on its surface of stuff it has encountered. An Earth-launched probe could overtake it within fifty years if the project began now, but would need to bring its own lighting to use when it got there

We should launch something and keep it in orbit and at the ready just for this situation. We could take the time and build something that could land on it and nudge it into orbit so we can mine it! Man this would be a great GoFundMe idea, would you agree?

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: Alien Abduct

Oh, such a typically human response. First, you are woefully incorrect in your "...a waste to just fly straight by..." comment.
Seriously, it is looping around the sun in an open orbit that would not return again if classical orbital theory is assumed. but to go with that narrow thinking would be a mistake if attempting to apply it to a ship that has simply arrived straight in toward the sun from a distant, non-solar motion.

Back to another point of yours: Let us assume that they have something like SOL locomotion up to the approach of our system. Coming to a visited star, they reverse the process to exactly the orbit to what is required by physics and go all natural. That means they lower the velocity and chose the correct angle of approach that goes hand in hand with the velocity. What they "want" would also depend upon what their ship can handle, be it getting close to the visited sun or be it close (not too close) to the selected planets planned to be checked out. Some of these point to be considered by a star-traveling alien ship may be outside the reasoning power of ATS posters.

As I said, the orbit is indicative, the rotation or tumbling of the ship will tell us maybe more than we want to know. Actually, it is not likely that the public will be told the truth it the motion indicates intelligent control.

Uh why would “they” do ALL of that when “they” can just simply cloak the ship?

a reply to: JimOberg

ESO Observations Show First Interstellar Asteroid is Like Nothing Seen Before

Seems I've seen that somewhere before and it was to be avoided.



In all seriousness, it's a great thread Jim! Glad to see you posting here.

heres what i have to say about this:
WHAT
THE
ACTUAL
F#CK ?????!!@!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!!1