Scientists have revealed that the interstellar object named “Oumuamua” seen by a telescope in Hawaii in 2017 was actually a comet.
The thesis of an extraterrestrial spaceship rejected. In a report published Wednesday, March 22, in the journal Nature, scientists have determined that the interstellar object Oumuamua, first seen by a telescope in Hawaii in 2017, was actually a comet.
Nearly 400 meters long and 100 meters wide, ‘Oumuamua’ (meaning ‘scout’ in Hawaiian) had raised many questions in the scientific community about its nature. In fact, former Harvard University astronomy director Abraham, known as “Avi” Loeb, had largely supported the explanation of an extraterrestrial spacecraft in his 2021 book, The first sign of intelligent life extraterrestrial.
However, three years earlier, the research team from the University of Maryland’s Department of Astronomy announced that the first interstellar object to enter our solar system was entirely natural. “The alien spacecraft hypothesis is amusing, but our analysis suggests that a variety of natural phenomena may explain ‘Oumuamua,” said Matthew Knight, the study’s co-director at the time.
questions about its shape
Unlike more “traditional” comets, “Oumuamua” didn’t have a glowing trail made up of gas and dust. This characteristic had, of course, provided material for the skeptics and the defenders of the thesis of an extraterrestrial ship.
In the journal Nature, Jennifer Bergner, a chemist at the University of California, Berkeley, who led the recently published work, explains that the lack of a “tail,” or luminous trail, is entirely due to the comet’s composition.
“As Oumuamua neared the Sun, it released hydrogen, which remains less massive than the carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide emitted in typical comets, and would not have had the momentum to launch much dust with it, which explains the lack of a comma or a.” Tail”, specified the author of the study.
‘Weird acting’
Jennifer Bergner also specifies that this “evacuation of hydrogen” thus makes it possible to explain the strange behavior of the comet, which, after entering the solar system, deviated from its orbit and came out of it.
“We report here that the acceleration of Oumuamua is due to the release of trapped molecular hydrogen formed by the energetic treatment of an O-rich ice body H2,” reads the statement of the most recent study.
The report’s co-author Darryl Seligman, who works for him at Cornell University, New York state, argues that “trapped hydrogen is simply the most general explanation” for scientifically translating the acceleration experienced by the comet.