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First Observation of an Interstellar Visitor

Started by Recusant, October 28, 2017, 05:21:38 AM

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Tank

Quote from: hermes2015 on June 14, 2020, 04:21:34 AM
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on June 14, 2020, 02:08:14 AM
For other ignoramuses like me, "sublimation" is when a solid goes to the gaseous phase without passing through the liquid phase, like ice cubes shrinking in the freezer. 

I propose making a cigar named Oumuamua and smoking it in honor of Oumuamua.

Another example which is often given, but incorrectly, is iodine crystals. When heated, Iodine does in fact melt at 114°. One can boil the liquid iodine in a test tube to dry it, as I did many times when I needed anhydrous iodine. The boiling point is around 185°, when it refluxes on the inside walls of the test tube.

I love a 'geek mode' moment  :hug2:
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

hermes2015

Quote from: Tank on June 14, 2020, 10:04:31 AM
Quote from: hermes2015 on June 14, 2020, 04:21:34 AM
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on June 14, 2020, 02:08:14 AM
For other ignoramuses like me, "sublimation" is when a solid goes to the gaseous phase without passing through the liquid phase, like ice cubes shrinking in the freezer. 

I propose making a cigar named Oumuamua and smoking it in honor of Oumuamua.

Another example which is often given, but incorrectly, is iodine crystals. When heated, Iodine does in fact melt at 114°. One can boil the liquid iodine in a test tube to dry it, as I did many times when I needed anhydrous iodine. The boiling point is around 185°, when it refluxes on the inside walls of the test tube.

I love a 'geek mode' moment  :hug2:

Thank you (I think). Not sure whether that is good or bad.
:unsure:
"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se."
― Charles Eames

xSilverPhinx

Quote from: hermes2015 on June 14, 2020, 10:09:31 AM
Quote from: Tank on June 14, 2020, 10:04:31 AM
Quote from: hermes2015 on June 14, 2020, 04:21:34 AM
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on June 14, 2020, 02:08:14 AM
For other ignoramuses like me, "sublimation" is when a solid goes to the gaseous phase without passing through the liquid phase, like ice cubes shrinking in the freezer. 

I propose making a cigar named Oumuamua and smoking it in honor of Oumuamua.

Another example which is often given, but incorrectly, is iodine crystals. When heated, Iodine does in fact melt at 114°. One can boil the liquid iodine in a test tube to dry it, as I did many times when I needed anhydrous iodine. The boiling point is around 185°, when it refluxes on the inside walls of the test tube.

I love a 'geek mode' moment  :hug2:

Thank you (I think). Not sure whether that is good or bad.
:unsure:

:popcorn: It's good, no matter what others might say. :grin:
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


xSilverPhinx

Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on June 14, 2020, 02:08:14 AM
I propose making a cigar named Oumuamua and smoking it in honor of Oumuamua.

:cheers: To Oomua...Ohmua...to *inaudible muffled sound*.  :smokin cool:
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


Randy

"Maybe it's just a bunch of stuff that happens." -- Homer Simpson
"Some people focus on the destination. Atheists focus on the journey." -- Barry Goldberg

Recusant

A new hypothesis for the origin of 'Oumuamua.  Instead of hydrogen, the papers described below suggest that it was mostly composed of nitrogen. :thumb:

"Interstellar Object 'Oumuamua Is Likely a Piece of a Pluto-Like Planet" | American Geophysical Union

Quote

Illustration of a plausible history for 'Oumuamua shows an origin in its parent system around 0.4 billion years ago; erosion by cosmic rays during its journey to the solar system; and passage through the solar system, including its closest approach to the Sun on 9 September 2017 and its discovery in October 2017. At each point along its history, this illustration shows the predicted size of 'Oumuamua, and the ratio between its longest and shortest dimensions.
Graphic credit: S. Selkirk/ASU,




The first known interstellar object to pass through our solar system is likely a piece of a Pluto-like planet from another solar system, according to a new study published as a pair of papers today in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, AGU's journal for research on the formation and evolution of the planets, moons and objects of our solar system and beyond.

The results may help scientists learn about the stuff exoplanets are made of and the evolution of solar systems beyond our own.

"This research is exciting in that we've probably resolved the mystery of what 'Oumuamua is and we can reasonably identify it as a chunk of an 'exo-Pluto,' a Pluto-like planet in another solar system," said Steven Desch, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University and an author of the new study. "Until now, we've had no way to know if other solar systems have Pluto-like planets, but now we have seen a chunk of one pass by Earth."

Discovered in 2017 via the Pan-STARRS astronomical observatory in Hawaii, 1I/2017 U1 'Oumuamua, meaning 'scout' or 'messenger' in Hawaiian, hurtled past at 87.3 kilometers per second (196,000 miles per hour). The weirdly flat object was like a comet, but with features that were just odd enough to defy classification.

'Oumuamua's characteristics suggest it is likely made of solid nitrogen, like the surface of Pluto, according to the authors.

"It was likely knocked off the surface by an impact about half a billion years ago and thrown out of its parent system," said Alan Jackson, an astronomer and planetary scientist at Arizona State University and coauthor of the new study. Jackson will present the research on Wednesday, 17 March at the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference.

'Oumuamua likely wasn't flat when it entered our solar system, but melted away to a sliver, losing more than 95% of its mass, during its close encounter with the Sun, according to Jackson.

[Continues . . .]

There are links to the papers available at the AGU press release page above.
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Randy

I didn't realize that people were still studying that thing. it's got to be pretty far out there by now. it must be from pictures taken on it's approach.
"Maybe it's just a bunch of stuff that happens." -- Homer Simpson
"Some people focus on the destination. Atheists focus on the journey." -- Barry Goldberg

Davin

I didn't read this specific article, only the provided snippet, I'll read the rest later.

It had been detected that it picked up speed which is common for comets that get close to a star from an out-gassing process. But this one didn't look like the same kind of ice that would produce that kind of thing. Which is why they think it's likely nitrogen because when they plug nitrogen into the equations it matches all observed behavior. So unfortunately it's not and alien ship... at least not proven.

Now we'll have to see if that guy who wrote a book about how it's definitely aliens will handle this, correct himself or start speaking on the alien convention circuit.
Always question all authorities because the authority you don't question is the most dangerous... except me, never question me.

Recusant

A refinement of the outgassing explanation for the observed acceleration. Those damned scientists are determined to stomp on our fantasies of interstellar voyagers.  :grrr:

"Sorry, E.T. fans: Interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua isn't an alien spacecraft. It's just passing gas." | Space.com

QuoteSince its surprise arrival in the solar system in 2017, the interstellar object 'Oumuamua has puzzled scientists. A duo of American astronomers now think they have solved one of the space rock's lingering mysteries.

First thought to be an asteroid, later recast as a likely comet, and by some even considered a possible alien spaceship, the 650-foot-long (200 meters) 'Oumuamua zoomed through the central solar system in late 2017. During its brief visit, the rock approached Earth within 15 million miles (24 million kilometers), about 62 Earth-moon distances, and disappeared a few weeks after its discovery.

Observations made within this short period of time soon proved that 'Oumuamua was on what astronomers call a "hyperbolic" orbit, a boomerang-shaped trajectory that indicated the rock is not native to our solar system but was only passing through the sun's neighborhood and would never be seen again.

[. . .]

Many scientists have tried to explain the mechanism behind 'Oumuamua's acceleration, but all of the proposed ideas have had significant gaps. In a new study, Jennifer Bergner, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley and Darryl Seligman, a U.S. National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University, propose a new theory, which they think might finally put the issue to rest.

"I have been trying to explain the outgassing for several years now," Seligman told Space.com. "First, I thought that perhaps there just wasn't too much dust in the outgassing [to form the coma]. Later, we thought that perhaps it was made of some more volatile material than what we see in usual comets, such as hydrogen, nitrogen or carbon monoxide. But there were theoretical issues with each of these explanations."

Hydrogen, for example, would require extremely cold temperatures to freeze into objects the size of 'Oumuamua, and scientists don't expect such temperatures inside the dense molecular clouds where these objects form, Seligman said. Nitrogen is not ubiquitous enough in the Milky Way to account for the expected number of such bodies in the galaxy, he added.

Seligman and Bergner now propose that there might be nothing extraordinary about 'Oumuamua's chemistry. Instead, the object was subject to processes outside the solar system that astronomers don't know about from our observations of domestic comets.

"A comet traveling through the interstellar medium basically is getting cooked by cosmic radiation, forming hydrogen as a result," Bergner said in a statement(opens in new tab). "Our thought was: If this was happening, could you actually trap it in the body, so that when it entered the solar system and it was warmed up, it would outgas that hydrogen?"

Continues . . .

The paper is behind a paywall.

QuoteAbstract:

In 2017, 1I/'Oumuamua was identified as the first known interstellar object in the Solar System. Although typical cometary activity tracers were not detected, 'Oumuamua showed a notable non-gravitational acceleration. So far, there has been no explanation that can reconcile these constraints.

Owing to energetic considerations, outgassing of hyper-volatile molecules is favoured over heavier volatiles such as H2O and CO2. However, there are theoretical and/or observational inconsistencies with existing models invoking the sublimation of pure H2, N2 and CO. Non-outgassing explanations require fine-tuned formation mechanisms and/or unrealistic progenitor production rates.

Here we report that the acceleration of 'Oumuamua is due to the release of entrapped molecular hydrogen that formed through energetic processing of an H2O-rich icy body. In this model, 'Oumuamua began as an icy planetesimal that was irradiated at low temperatures by cosmic rays during its interstellar journey, and experienced warming during its passage through the Solar System.

This explanation is supported by a large body of experimental work showing that H2 is efficiently and generically produced from H2O ice processing, and that the entrapped H2 is released over a broad range of temperatures during annealing of the amorphous water matrix. We show that this mechanism can explain many of 'Oumuamua's peculiar properties without fine-tuning. This provides further support that 'Oumuamua originated as a planetesimal relic broadly similar to Solar System comets.
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Tank

If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Asmodean

The Asmo's own people, those. :smilenod:

Second Law of Asmodynamics clearly states that if a parade can be rained on, then you should bring a umbrella.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.