scientist have institute that ‘ Oumuamua , theinterstellar objectthat was found give through our Solar System in October , may not be what it appear .
It had been thought this object was an asteroid from another planetary organisation because we had n’t line up a coma of rubble and gas around it – something that icy comet have as they melt or sublimate .
The late observations of ‘ Oumuamua , however , published inNature Astronomy , show that the object has an constituent - rich level on its airfoil . The enquiry suggests that this could have protected a hidden ice - plentiful interior from being vaporized during its tight passageway to our Sun .
“ When it was detected it demonstrate no signs of cometary activity , ” Alan Fitzsimmons from Queen ’s University Belfast , the study ’s lead author , told IFLScience . “ However , we ’ve got spectra of the physical object which shows it ’s very similar to ice - rich object in the verboten Solar System . ”
Spectra here refers to measuring the light from the object , and seeing what element it is made of . In this case , it seems to have a layer of carbon copy on its surface – an “ constitutive coat ” if you will . Organic fundamentally refer to the presence of carbon .
‘ Oumuamua passed within 0.25 AU ( astronomic units ) of the Sun , a one-fourth of Earth ’s orbit , before realize its manner out of our Solar System again . At this close law of proximity , if it had been a comet we would have expected to see signs of its ice sublimating ( turning from self-colored to gas ) .
That was n’t the case , however , which is why we thought it had been an asteroid and thus devoid of ice . But this recent study suggests it could well have been glacial , which changes how itmight have formedin the unknown planetary system it grow from .
“ We sleep together it ’s not similar to any of the asteroids you rule comparatively close to our Sun , ” said Fitzsimmons . “ Previous expectations have been that the majority of objects cast out of solar systems during satellite geological formation should have been icy . So this fits in with that arithmetic mean . ”
The object remains very unusual , with a lot of questions still unrequited . We do n’t know where it came from , for instance , nor do we bed how former it is although an upper limit of 10 billion years has been suggested . It may be possible to see cometic activity as it take a leak its way out of the Solar System .
Scientists hope to discover more interstellar object like this one in the future . Finding out what they are made of , and whether they are icy or not , could tell us more about how other planetary systems mannequin .
