This is probably the first image of an interstellar object we ’ve ever find in our Solar System .
Last hebdomad , we were treat to the newsworthiness that A/2017 U1 may be an asteroid or cometfrom another star , which had been flung in our direction .
Now , scientists have used telescope around the worldly concern to get across the physical object , verify its extraterrestrial origins and getting our first glimpse at what it looks like .
" By Wednesday [ last ] week it became almost certain this physical object was alien to our Solar System , ” Professor Alan Fitzsimmons from Queen ’s University Belfast , who is part of the labor to study the object , say in astatement . “ We immediately started read it that night with the William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands , then on Thursday night with the Very Large Telescope in Chile . "
The squad were able-bodied to snap clear images of the object and get data on its chemical composition . It seems to have ared coloring , similar to object found in the Kuiper Belt in the out Solar System .
It ’s thought to be about 400 meters ( 1,312 feet)across , and traveling in a highly flakey orbit . A hundred years ago , it ’s thought the object was 559 times further from the Sun than Earth ( 559 astronomic Units , or AU ) . On October 14 , it elapse just 0.161 AU from Earth , make its closest approach to the Sun on September 9 of 0.25 AU before swinging out again , likely never to hark back .
Fitzsimmons told IFLScience that more trope and data were on the way about the object . But all the data suggests at the moment that it was indeed interstellar .
“ Basically , it is traveling importantly faster than the escape velocity from the Sun , ” he said . Its orbit evoke it will not return again .
data point so far suggests this was a little rocky or wintry aim , which has been drifting through our wandflower for millions or billion of year . Unlike comets in our Solar System , there ’s no grounds of a comatoseness of dust and flatulency , suggesting this may be an asteroid and not a comet .
By chance , it appears to have flown into our Solar System , and is now on its way out into interstellar blank .
We ’ve thought such aim might survive , but this is the first time we ’ve ever seen one . It was probably throw out of another star system during its planet formation menstruation .
It ’s a groundbreaking determination , and now we ’ve incur a good look at its coming into court . There will be more word about this object in the futurity though , for sure .
