1I/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] ʻOumuamua was first discovered on 19 October 2017 using the Pan-STARRS1 telescope at the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii.[3]
The name ʻOumuamua is from the Hawaiian language. The ⟨ʻ⟩ at the beginning of the name is not an apostrophe but a letter of the Hawaiian alphabet, called ʻokina. It indicates a glottal stop.
1I/ʻOumuamua Media
Hyperbolic trajectory of ʻOumuamua, during 2017, through the inner Solar System with the Sun at the focus
ʻOumuamua had faded to 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. MPEC 2017-V17: New Designation Scheme for Interstellar Objects. minorplanetcenter.net (November 6, 2017).
- ↑ Karen Northon. Our Solar System's first known interstellar object gets unexpected speed boost. nasa.gov (June 27, 2018).
- ↑ Karen J. Meech. Discovery and characterization of the first known interstellar object. Nature (November 1, 2017).
