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‘Oumuamua “Sped Up” in the Inner Solar System. This Might Be Why.
.skyandtelescope.com ^ | March 12, 2019 | Camille M. Carlisle

Posted on 03/13/2019 9:01:54 AM PDT by BenLurkin

‘Oumuamua appeared to hit the gas on its way out of the inner solar system. The body went a tiny bit faster than it should have if the only effect on its motion was the Sun’s gravity dragging on it. The best guess... was that ices vaporized from ‘Oumuamua’s surface by the Sun’s stark glare had given the body an extra kick. However, no observations had detected such outgassing.

...The team revisited all the observations made during ‘Oumuamua’s whiplash visit and have concluded that outgassing could indeed be to blame.

The researchers looked at what would happen if incident sunlight created a thruster-like jet of water vapor at the spot on ‘Oumuamua that directly pointed at the Sun. As the body tumbled, this spot would change location, and so the jet created would migrate across the surface...

The tiny thrust from this migrating jet would cause the body to rock back and forth like a pendulum. This rocking would explain both the acceleration and the periodic pattern in ‘Oumuamua’s brightness, the researchers say....

But...[n]None of the authors’ plots of the object’s changes in brightness reproduce the real light curve, particularly the pointy minima naturally created by a spinning elongated object. “Just try spinning a cigar along its short axis, and you’ll see that the periods when you see it exposing [the] small cross-section pass quickly,” he explains.

Furthermore, the outgassing should have changed ‘Oumuamua’s spin. Astronomers saw the body’s acceleration drop by a factor of four from late October to late November 2017 as the object raced away from the Sun. If this change happened because less sunlight was reaching the object and, thus, sublimating less ice, then the period of ‘Oumuamua’s pendulum-like tumbling should have doubled, which wasn’t observed.

(Excerpt) Read more at skyandtelescope.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science; UFO's
KEYWORDS: asteroid; astronomy; aviloeb; catastrophism; harvard; oumuamua; science; ufo; ufos; yurimilner
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To: Red Badger
There was some sci-fi flick where some astronomers were monitoring some asteroid coming into the solar system and it suddenly slowed down..........it was not a rock................

Actually, there were 'many' sci-fi flicks with that plot.

21 posted on 03/16/2019 12:05:31 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: steve86
The solar wind (given a certain intensity) would affect all bodies equally depending on surface area and mass.

Have they gone back and re-evaluated the movements of OTHER bodies having an equal surface area and mass for that time period ?

22 posted on 03/16/2019 12:14:43 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: UCANSEE2

I can’t remember the name of any of them!.......................8^)


23 posted on 03/18/2019 6:22:07 AM PDT by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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There's an Interstellar Asteroid Hiding Near Jupiter | SciShow Space | Published on May 25, 2018

There's an Interstellar Asteroid Hiding Near Jupiter | SciShow Space | Published on May 25, 2018

24 posted on 05/02/2019 12:34:04 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: BenLurkin

25 posted on 03/23/2023 9:28:20 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Windflier
"Oumuamua appeared to hit the gas on its way out of the inner solar system."

Don't all interstellar spaceships do that?

Once they've observed our planet's occupants, you betcha...

26 posted on 03/23/2023 9:33:33 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (Gun laws empower criminals. Guns empower the people.)
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