The big news this week is the first recordings and observations of an interstellar object. Of the 750,000 asteroids and comets that have been cataloged up to now, every one of them originate from within our solar system. This object detected by the Pan-STARRS1 telescope and named A/2017 U1 or “Oumuamua”, a Hawaiian word for scout or messenger from the distant past, came from another part of our galaxy. Based on measurements made from multiple ground-based telescopes it is believed to be rather long and of a deep red color . Below is an artist’s rendering of this extra-solar visitor. While a comet would have generated some type of coma or tail travelling near the Sun, no such activity was recorded, hence it’s believed to be an asteroid-type object.
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
Measurements over multiple nights allowed to establish the trajectory, which clearly shows that it did not originate from the Oort cloud or other asteroid/comet rich fields surrounding the Sun. While the discovery was made only on an October 19 image, its closest approach to the Sun was September 9th.
Diagram showing the trajectory of A/2017 U1 (ESO/K. Meech, et al.)
Now I thing they got it all wrong. What they picked-up was the Red Dwarf mining ship swinging by our neighborhood!
Red Dwarf mining vessel owned by the Jupiter Mining Corporation (BBC)
Ben Backyard Astronomy 