Project Lyra, a Mission to Chase Down that Interstellar Asteroid

Universe Today ^ | 23 Nov , 2017

[BenLurkin]

To recap, when `Oumuamua was first observed on October 19th, 2017, by astronomers using the University of Hawaii’s Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS), the object (then known as C/2017 U1) was initially believed to be a comet. However, subsequent observations revealed that it was actually an asteroid and it was renamed 1I/2017 U1 (or 1I/`Oumuamua).

Follow-up observations made using the ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) were able to place constraints on the asteroid’s size, brightness, composition, color and orbit. These revealed that `Oumuamua measured some 400 meters (1312 feet) long, is very elongated, and spins on its axis every 7.3 hours – as indicated by the way its brightness varies by a factor of ten.

It was also determined to be rocky and metal rich, and to contain traces of tholins – organic molecules that have been irradiated by UV radiation. The asteroid also has an extremely hyperbolic orbit – with an eccentricity of 1.2 – which is currently taking it out of our Solar System. Preliminary calculations of its orbit also indicated that it originally came from the general direction of Vega, the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra.

Given that this asteroid is extra-solar in nature, a mission that would be capable of studying it up close could certainly tell us a great deal about the system in which it formed. It’s arrival in our system has also raised awareness about extra-solar asteroids, a new class of interstellar object that astronomers now estimate arrive in our system at a rate of about one per year.

Because of this, the team behind Project Lyra believe that studying 1I/`Oumuamua would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

[BenLurkin]

ping

[xkaydet65]

Maybe it is an interstellar probe.

[chaosagent]

Rendezvous with Rama?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

These revealed that `Oumuamua measured some 400 meters (1312 feet) long, is very elongated, and spins on its axis every 7.3 hours – as indicated by the way its brightness varies by a factor of ten.

It was also determined to be rocky and metal rich, and to contain traces of tholins – organic molecules that have been irradiated by UV radiation. The asteroid also has an extremely hyperbolic orbit – with an eccentricity of 1.2 – which is currently taking it out of our Solar System. Preliminary calculations of its orbit also indicated that it originally came from the general direction of Vega, the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra.

I'd better read Arthur C. Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama" again - best to be prepared.

[Steely Tom]

Would be extremely expensive, but the object seems too interesting to let pass.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin.

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[onedoug]

‘Wonder how old this object is?

[rdl6989]

Isnt’t the object too far and moving away too fast to ever catch it?

[RandallFlagg]

https://youtu.be/XyCJ57eQyoE

Starring William Windom as Matt Decker.

[BenLurkin]

I thought it was.

[TheNext]

Just redirect the asteroid to land on top of that square rock in Mecca. Then go mine it for metals.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Papa Oumuamua

[BenLurkin]

Nice.

[Berosus]

I hear the asteroid is already heading out of the solar system. Therefore if we’re going to send a probe to it, I wouldn’t count on NASA to build and launch the probe in time, what with their bloated bureaucracy.

[SunkenCiv]

The object is rocketing so fast, I’d be curious how anything we can build could rendezvous with it and “grab on” before it wound up slipping by forever.