Interstellar Interlopers, Coming in from the great beyond |
Interstellar Interlopers, Coming in from the great beyond |
Oct 27 2017, 01:40 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 541 Joined: 17-November 05 From: Oklahoma Member No.: 557 |
They finally found a chunk of something coming into the Solar System. Something much bigger than cosmic rays or dust particles.
Asteroid/comet in hyperbolic trajectory |
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Oct 27 2017, 07:04 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1729 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
I was surprised at first by the "low" eccentricty, which almost looks parabolic. I was expecting something more extreme like e=4. then I remembered that for e=sqrt(2), which is about 1.4 the asymptotes are perpendicular to each other, and 1.2 does no longer look that parabolic.
I think we are seeing a rare event: the object is largeish and it passed relatively close to the Earth and Sun. be sure to check Andy Rivkin's tweets ( https://twitter.com/asrivkin ). He has posted some interesting considerations. concerning e.g. the object's color and asteroidal/cometary nature |
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