{"id":15383,"date":"2018-07-01T05:41:50","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T05:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=15383"},"modified":"2020-06-09T12:57:56","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T12:57:56","slug":"our-solar-systems-first-known-interstellar-object-gets-unexpected-speed-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/our-solar-systems-first-known-interstellar-object-gets-unexpected-speed-boost\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Solar System\u2019s First Known Interstellar Object Gets Unexpected Speed Boost"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Using observations from NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories, an international team of scientists have confirmed\u00a0\u2032Oumuamua<\/a>\u00a0(oh-MOO-ah-MOO-ah), the first known interstellar object to travel through our solar system, got an unexpected boost in speed and shift in trajectory as it passed through the inner solar system last year.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\u00a0<\/span>This video explains how observatories, including NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope, found that \u2018Oumuamua<\/span>\u00a0gained an extra boost of speed, likely from comet-like jets of gas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Credits: NASA<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Watch the video here.<\/a><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\u00a0This animation shows the path of `Oumuamua as it passed through the inner solar system, and its location on Jan. 2, 2018, when it was last observed by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. By then, ‘Oumuamua<\/span>\u00a0had been boosted by 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) compared to where it would have been if only gravitational forces were affecting its motion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Credits: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span>
\n<\/span>Watch the video here.<\/a><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\u00a0<\/span>This animation of `Oumuamua is one of many artist conceptions of what this object could look like.\u00a0<\/span>Credits: NASA\/STScI<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Watch the video here.<\/a><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\n

\u201cThis additional subtle force on \u2032Oumuamua likely is caused by jets of gaseous material expelled from its surface,\u201d said Farnocchia. \u201cThis same kind of outgassing affects the motion of many comets in our solar system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Comets normally eject large amounts of dust and gas when warmed by the Sun. But according to team scientist Olivier Hainaut of the European Southern Observatory, \u201cthere were no visible signs of outgassing from \u2032Oumuamua, so these forces were not expected.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The team estimates that \u2032Oumuamua\u2019s outgassing may have produced a very small amount of dust particles \u2013 enough to give the object a little kick in speed, but not enough to be detected.<\/span><\/p>\n

Karen Meech, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii\u2019s Institute of Astronomy and co-author of the study, speculated that small dust grains, present on the surface of most comets, eroded away during \u2032Oumuamua’s long journey through interstellar space.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The more we study \u2032Oumuamua, the more exciting it gets,” Meech said. “I’m amazed at how much we have learned from a short, intense observing campaign.\u00a0I can hardly wait for the next interstellar object!”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2032Oumuamua, less than half a mile in length, now is farther away from our Sun than Jupiter and traveling away from the Sun at about 70,000 mph as it heads toward the outskirts of the solar system. In only another four years, it will pass Neptune\u2019s orbit on its way back into interstellar space.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because \u2032Oumuamua is the first interstellar object ever observed in our solar system, researchers caution that it\u2019s difficult to draw general conclusions about this newly-discovered class of celestial bodies. However, observations point to the possibility that other star systems regularly eject small comet-like objects and there should be more of them drifting among the stars. Future ground- and space-based surveys could detect more of these interstellar vagabonds, providing a larger sample for scientists to analyze.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Using observations from NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories, an international team of scientists have confirmed\u00a0\u2032Oumuamua\u00a0(oh-MOO-ah-MOO-ah), the first known interstellar object to travel through our solar system, got an unexpected boost in speed and shift in trajectory as it passed through the inner solar system last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa.png",2000,1125,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa-300x169.png",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa-768x432.png",750,422,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa-1024x576.png",750,422,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa.png",1536,864,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa.png",2000,1125,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa.png",1200,675,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa.png",870,489,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa.png",600,338,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa.png",600,338,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa.png",760,428,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa.png",550,309,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa.png",95,53,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa.png",640,360,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa.png",96,54,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/revoscience_nasa.png",150,84,false]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}