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'Oumuamua Outgasses Like a Comet

posted by Fnord666 on Friday June 29 2018, @08:57AM   Printer-friendly
from the just-don't-call-it-haley dept.

takyon writes:

The interstellar space rock that mystified astronomers is actually a comet

A mysterious space rock, first spotted in 2017, bewildered astronomers — was it an icy comet, a rocky asteroid, or something entirely new? As the object, called 'Oumuamua, hurtles away from us, the mystery may be solved: it's accelerating like a comet.

Researchers tracked the space rock's trajectory on its way out of this solar system, using telescopes on the ground and the powerful Hubble Space Telescope to keep watch even as the interstellar visitor faded out of [sight]. They discovered that 'Oumuamua's speed couldn't just be the result of gravity. It was accelerating — which could be explained by gas puffing out of the sun-warmed end of a comet, the team reports today in the journal Nature [DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0254-4] [DX].

'Oumuamua.

Also at ESA and ESA/Hubble.

Previously: Interstellar Asteroid Named: Oumuamua
ESO Observations Show First Interstellar Asteroid is Like Nothing Seen Before
Oumuamua Likely Originated in the Local Association (Pleiades Moving Group)

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by KritonK on Friday June 29 2018, @09:26AM (5 children)

    by KritonK (465) on Friday June 29 2018, @09:26AM (#700174)

    If it looks like a spaceship and accelerates like a spaceship, then it is... a comet ?!?!?

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday June 29 2018, @10:12AM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 29 2018, @10:12AM (#700189) Journal

    Since it tumbles through space, yes, is a comet.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

    • (Score: 2) by KritonK on Friday June 29 2018, @11:43AM (1 child)

      by KritonK (465) on Friday June 29 2018, @11:43AM (#700209)

      One man's tumble is another man's rotation around the ship's center of gravity, to create artificial gravity for its crew.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Friday June 29 2018, @01:13PM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 29 2018, @01:13PM (#700223) Journal

        Wikipedia entry

        ʻOumuamua is tumbling, rather than smoothly rotating.
        ...
        ʻOumuamua is rotating around a non-principal axis, a type of movement known as tumbling.[10][57] This accounts for the various rotation periods reported, such as 8.10 hours, (±0.42 hours)[12] (±0.02 hours)[11] with a lightcurve amplitude of 1.5–2.1 magnitudes,[11] whereas Meech et al. reported a rotation period of 7.3 hours and a lightcurve amplitude of 2.5 magnitudes.[58][Note 14] Most likely, ʻOumuamua was set tumbling by a collision in its system of origin, and remains tumbling since the time scale for dissipation of this motion is very long, at least a billion years.[59][60]

        ---

        One man's tumble is another man's rotation around the ship's center of gravity

        Maybe the aliens are crazier than your second man?

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

  • (Score: 2) by tonyPick on Friday June 29 2018, @01:00PM

    by tonyPick (1237) on Friday June 29 2018, @01:00PM (#700220) Homepage Journal

    It's not accelerating like a spaceship; it's accelerating at the wrong time (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberth_effect) plus it's acceleration vector is constantly away from the sun despite the fact it's tumbling.

    And this is a tiny acceleration (around 5 x 10^-6 m s ^-2 at 1AU according to the paper)

  • (Score: 2) by melikamp on Friday June 29 2018, @09:07PM

    by melikamp (1886) on Friday June 29 2018, @09:07PM (#700352) Journal
    It's not a comet, it's just an asteroid capable of trajectory-changing farts.