Thursday 24 May 2018

cosmic interlopers

The excitement and wonder surrounding the confirmation of the first known interstellar object, Oumuamua, to just pass through our Solar System was of course just opening up our eyes to the possibility that there may be many more visitors out there, and presently astronomers believe that they have solid evidence for another (albeit on much longer layover) guest from outside of Solar System. Almost all objects in the Solar System orbit the Sun (or planetary hosts) in the same direction with a minority of retrograde orbitals—usually attributed to a reconstructed, violent past—however an asteroid going against the grain, performing a complicated exchange between the tug of Jupiter and the pull of the Sun seems to be a strong candidate for more exotic origins.