ʻOumuamua
ʻOumuamua (Hawaiian: first messenger arriving from afar)[1] is an object from another star system that visited our solar system. Its official name is 1I/2017 U1.
ʻOumuamua is the first interstellar object that we know has passed through our solar system.[2] Oumuamua was first discovered on 19 October 2017 using the Pan-STARRS1 telescope at the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii.[3]
Its appearance is long and narrow, and it had a dark red color, similar to objects in the outer Solar System.
ʻOumuamua Media
Hyperbolic trajectory of ʻOumuamua through the inner Solar System with the Sun at the focus.
ʻOumuamua had faded into the 34th magnitude by 2020.
Seen from Earth, the apparent trajectory makes annual retrograde loops in the sky, with its origin in Lyra, temporarily moving south of the ecliptic between 2 September and 22 October 2017, and moving northward again towards its destination in Pegasus.
ʻOumuamua's hyperbolic trajectory over the Solar System.
Animation of ʻOumuamua passing through the Solar System
Light curve from 25 to 27 October 2017 with dotted line from a model with 10:1 elongation
References
- ↑ Gareth V. Williams (November 6, 2017). "MPEC 2017-V17: New Designation Scheme for Interstellar Objects". minorplanetcenter.net.
- ↑ Karen Northon (June 27, 2018). "Our Solar System's first known interstellar object gets unexpected speed boost". nasa.gov.
- ↑ Karen J. Meech; et al. (November 1, 2017). "Discovery and characterization of the first known interstellar object" (PDF). Nature.
