Posted on 12/20/2017 6:44:36 AM PST by blam
Observations of the oblong interstellar traveler Oumuamua have revealed an unidentified organic coating on it, igniting scientific and public curiosity alike. After “Oumuamua” was initially spotted by a telescope in Hawaii by the Pan-STARRS project on October 19, experts raced to gather all possible information on it before it passed beyond humanity’s collective reach. But, while they expected to find a comet-like chunk of ice passing by our sun, the object mysteriously failed to leave behind a vapor trail as it grazed our home star. Instead, the still-unidentified chunk of ancient space debris hurtling at 60,000 MPH through our solar system left us with a host of new questions.
First, Oumuamua is exceptionally long and narrow — roughly 400 by about 40 meters. The shape is unlike any asteroids in our own solar system. Paul Chodas, Manager of NASA’s Centre for Near Earth Orbit Studies, called it “a strange visitor from a faraway star system, shaped like nothing we’ve ever seen in our own solar system neighborhood.”
Second, the lack of a comet-like tail of vaporized ice — despite passing even within Mercury’s orbit — seems to be the result of unknown organic matter which shields its internal ice from the sun’s immense heat. Also, it’s red. And while some observations tagged it as similar to the shades we see from minerals present in our own system, others suggest that it is significantly darker.
Queen’s University Belfast’s Dr. Michele Bannister of the Outer Solar System Origins Survey called Oumuamua “the opposite” of what she was “expecting we might see.” To her, it is the familiar aspects of the object that intrigue. “It’s travelled for millions or billions of years – it could be older than our solar system. …It’s come from a very long way away
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(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
...with Interstellar Overdrive on it!
Well, the Empire does like to dump their garbage before jumping to light speed.
Maybe even the next convention!.................
I think, as always, that the principle of “Occam’s Razor” applies.
If it looks like a rock, acts like a rock and there is no reason to think it is other than a rock, it probably is a rock.
Just because it hails from some unknown place of unknown origin and is an unusual event/object, leads no rational person to think it is other than a rock....
Glad to know that the astronomy folks have the tools to see it, track it and ponder about it. But come on, it is a dead rock from somewhere else. It won’t tell us anything we need to know. All we can do is scan it with various sensors and pretend to interpret something from the analysis.
It is a rock.
Can I get my Nobel prize in science now or do I have to wait?
That was my first thought when I first heard of this.
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Ummagumma...................
Well at least we still have some humpback whales in the ocean...
Berzerker on a recon mission.
That is a GREAT movie.
I very much enjoy watching it.
Still wish MST3K had done it.
Aliens! </Arnold J. Rimmer>
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Other times it’s a tour bus, or a very yuge bacterium.
“result of unknown organic matter which shields its internal ice from the sun’s immense heat”
How do they know its insides are made of ice?
Waiting now for the cat & pickle gifs.
Where the heck has the author of this article been for the last several months?
Oumuamua was already classified as being comprised of metallic or rocky materials. The reddish coating has already been explained as being the result of cosmic ray bombardment over millions of years, and the presence of an “organic coating” means it has methane dust and other simple products of organic chemistry on it.
My first thought when the initial stories appeared was, "What's the big deal?" There are plenty of rocks on earth that shatter into long, angular pieces. (Is is mostly sedimentary rocks that do this?) The thing I don't understand is the repeated assertion that the shape is unlike anything else ever detected in space. Is that really true?
Everybody got their Slim Whitman cds handy...?
One of their more esoteric albums.
The old ice shedding theory was debunked a decade ago. It’s non magnetic and non conductive so it has no tail...
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