Small object visits from beyond solar system

[Creag]

We think of both comets and asteroids as belonging to our own solar system, our family of planets orbiting the sun, but NASA reported on October 26, 2017 that astronomers have been watching a small body – perhaps an asteroid, perhaps a comet – apparently from beyond our solar system, from somewhere in interstellar space. If so, it would be the first interstellar asteroid (or comet) to be observed and confirmed. The object is currently designated A/2017 U1, and it’s less than a quarter-mile (400 meters) in diameter. NASA said it is moving remarkably fast, some 15.8 miles (25.5 km) per second (similar to Earth’s own speed in orbit around the sun). Astronomers around the world are aiming earthly telescopes, and telescopes in space, in this unusual object’s direction. They’re trying to find out as much as they can about A/2017 U1, perhaps to determine its composition, and hopefully to confirm if indeed it is visiting us from somewhere else in our Milky Way galaxy, before it shoots away again … forever.

The University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS 1 telescope spotted A/2017 U1 on October 19, in the course of a nightly search for near-Earth objects. Rob Weryk, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, was first to notice the object as a starry point, moving in front of the stars. He was the first to submit it to the IAU’s Minor Planet Center, which is the worldwide organization in charge of collecting observational data for minor planets and comets in our solar system.

From the shape of its orbit, it quickly became apparent this object wasn’t an ordinary member of our solar system. NASA said:

Weryk subsequently searched the Pan-STARRS image archive and found it also was in images taken the previous night, but was not initially identified by the moving object processing.

Weryk immediately realized this was an unusual object …

Weryk contacted IfA graduate Marco Micheli, who had the same realization using his own follow-up images taken at the European Space Agency’s telescope on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. But with the combined data, everything made sense … This object came from outside our solar system.

The rest of article at source: Earth Sky

 

[Creag]

This animation shows the path of A/2017 U1, which is an asteroid — or perhaps a comet — as it passed through our inner solar system in September and October 2017. By tracking its motion, scientists have been able to calculate it probably originated from outside of our solar system.

 

[Scooby_Doo]

Imagine how interesting it would be if we were able to capture something like that for study...