The unimaginable size of our universe is such a bittersweet thing. Yes, there is an uncontainable excitement to explore and know about everything out there (because that’s what we humans do) but there is also just too much to ever be known in its entirety, even with all the future generations to come.
In fact, we are at such a primitive stage of space exploration that we haven’t even explored our own solar system and are only now looking to send manned missions to Mars. We don’t even have a lunar base yet!!
Anyways, the journey still continues, ever forward and every once in a while, we get to encounter something that advances our understanding of the cosmos by leaps and bounds.
Recently, the world has been abuzz with the first interstellar object ever known to visit our solar system and it has raised all sorts of questions.
‘Oumuamua - The Interstellar Object
On October 9, a strange looking interstellar object was spotted by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii and that’s the reason it has a Hawaiian name (which means messenger). At first, astronomers thought it was a comet but then further analysis, they came to a conclusion that it was an asteroid.
However, after more observations by the European Southern Observatory, astronomers found out that it was not the usual asteroids that we encounter in our own solar system. In fact, this was a highly elongated (cigar shaped) asteroid, which is unlike anything we have seen before.
Word quickly got out and people started speculating all sorts of things, including that it could be a space ship carrying extra terrestrial beings, probably because of its unusual shape. In fact, the Breakthrough research project, even listened for any radio signals coming from the object but nothing was found that suggested ‘intelligent life’.
But that was not the end of the observations though, as in the more recent findings, it has been revealed that ‘Oumuamua has a layer of organic sunscreen on the surface which is about 0.5 meters thick and that protects it from the Sun.
That could also be the reason why ‘Oumuamua isn’t a comet as the organic layer could be preventing an icy inner core from vaporizing and forming a tail behind it.
Anyways, researchers are still studying the object while they can, as it is already on its way out of the solar system. It is expected to pass Saturn’s orbit in January 2019 on its way out.
Baby Steps
We as a race are only taking baby steps right now in trying to understand our cosmos and objects like ‘Oumuamua prove that we still don’t know even a tiny fraction about what could be out there.
Yes, with time our technologies will improve and we will be better equipped to study the different astronomical bodies and understand and answer so many questions that we have about our universe.
Even from a theoretical physics point of view, we have a lot to understand about the nature of our reality. Things like dark energy and dark matter that are thought to form 96% of the universe are still beyond our understanding at this point.
As I said, before, the journey continues and it is an exciting one for anyone who has ever gazed upon the dark sky and wondered about the sheer extent of what’s out there.
Where did you get info about that 😀 I haven' t heard of it. I am very interested of space and all news about it. I have couple of posts about asteroids and aliens.
Anyway. Thank you for infornation. I am going to googling now 😁
I have been reading about it for a week now. It has been all over the news :D
In Hawaiian it manner “a messenger from afar arriving first.”
I too posted something on this topic but did not get much response. Here is the link to the post.
Yes, that's correct.
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Thanks a lot,
your @treeplanter
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Sir great information, really impressive
I not only Resteem it but started following u.
I just love space , I wanted to be a part of every such information.please keep on adding.
Thank you
Regards@crafter
Thank you :)
This sounds amazing. How did it got the name 'Oumuamua' ? Is there any meaning behind it ?
Discovered in Hawaii:
The name comes from Hawaiian ʻoumuamua, meaning "scout",[16] (from ʻou, meaning "reach out for", and mua, reduplicated for emphasis, meaning "first, in advance of"[3]) and reflects the way this object is like a scout or messenger sent from the distant past to reach out to us.[3][17] The first character is a Hawaiian ʻokina, not an apostrophe, and is represented by a single quotation mark and pronounced as a glottal stop; the name was chosen by the Pan-STARRS team[18] in consultation with Kaʻiu Kimura and Larry Kimura of the University of Hawaii at Hilo.[19]
Yes, I have mentioned it in the post :) It means "messenger" in Hawaiian.
Distinctive Analysis Greetings
??
The first interstellar object ever to visit our solar system. It would be awesome there would be a mission sent there to get any sample from it. Anyways, the universe is full of sandbox game :)
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It may or may not be the first interstellar object to visit our solar system only the first one we know about.
Yes, I mentioned it in the post.
I know you did. However, Murasz didn't make that disctinction.
Yeah, it was discovered to late to send a probe to it in time. Well, maybe next time then!
Such an interesting read. Would have been cool if we could have intercept it and explored it.
There was simply not enough time. By the time it was discovered, it was already on its way out of the Solar System.
As always, your posts are fascinating!
Thank you :)
Shit Aliens r comin
LOL. Not exactly.
But u never know right😂
Well it's the first interstellar object to visit our solar system "that we know of"... We have never had so much capability to see out as we have right now.
When I worked for the Palomar Mountain Observatory(Caltech), I was amazed to find out that there are just thousands and thousands of Photo plates from the Palomar Sky surveys that have not actually been analyzed. There is a lady up there buy the name of Jean Mueller that is a telescope operator, and spends her spare time staring at plates. She has been doing this since the 1985, and has named many planets, near earth objects, and supernovae...
My point is, we have not even scratched the surface of what is out there...
Yes, I mentioned it in the post that it is the first interstellar object to visit our solar system that we know of.
Yes, with hundreds of billions of galaxies with hundreds of billions of stars in them and them having some planets revolving around them, one can imagine that we might probably never explore even a tiny fraction of the universe.
Wonderful research work
Thanks!
Is the orbit of the orbit fully calculated. very interesting
I think so.
Waiting for more posts from you in respect of this overexciting topic.!!
haha, yeah, let's hope they discover something interesting! :D