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: 540 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 31 2017, 12:21 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
I'd like to know the miss distance of its approach trajectory, in other words the distance from the sun to the asymptote of the orbit. If my mental estimate is about right there must be about a thousand of these things passing though the orbit of Neptune every few years.
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Oct 31 2017, 07:08 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 684 Joined: 24-July 15 Member No.: 7619 |
I'd like to know the miss distance of its approach trajectory, in other words the distance from the sun to the asymptote of the orbit. If my mental estimate is about right there must be about a thousand of these things passing though the orbit of Neptune every few years. I'm curious whether the outbound path will take it anywhere near VGR1, VGR2 or New Horizons... Also curious to know whether any heliopause measurements detected any shockwave or disturbance when this thing was inbound, which might help identify what happens when it passes back out of sol-space to interstellar-space on the outbound trajectory. Fun tangent - is there a theoretical maximum for speed from gravity assist orbits? Say, hypothetically, we launch a ion-engine probe so that it gets a gravity assist ▲v from the moon, breaks earth orbit and heads for the Sun and Mercury. Gravity assist from the Sun kicks in huge ▲v and gravity assist from Mercury aims it back towards the moon. Gravity assist from the moon kicks in more ▲v and sends it back towards the Sun and Mercury. Repeat as necessary. Using 2 large airless bodies to "play catch" and get repeated gravity assists from a star, how fast can you get? |
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