Asteroid From Another Star System Found Orbiting Wrong Way Near Jupiter (theguardian.com) 84
Astronomers have spotted an asteroid orbiting our sun in the opposite (retrograde) direction to the planets. The 2-mile-wide asteroid, known as 2015 BZ509, is the first "interstellar immigrant" from beyond our solar system to remain, according to the study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The Guardian reports: Further work on the asteroid revealed it takes the same length of time to orbit the sun as the planet Jupiter at a similar average distance, although in the opposite direction and with a different shaped path, suggesting the two have gravitational interactions. But unpicking quite where the asteroid came from was challenging. Asteroids that orbit the sun on paths that take them between the giant planets -- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune -- are known as centaurs, and it is thought that many might come from distant bands of material within the solar system such as the scattered disk or the Oort cloud. Several, like BZ509, are known to have retrograde paths, although how they ended up on such orbits is unclear.
But there was a clue there was something unusual about BZ509: while previous studies suggested retrograde centaurs stay gravitationally "tied" to planets for 10,000 years at most, recent work had suggested this asteroid's orbit had been linked to Jupiter for far longer, probably as a result of the planet's mass and the way both take the same time to orbit the sun. The discovery provides vital clues as to the asteroid's origins. [Dr Fathi Namouni from the Observatory de la Cote d'Azur said] that the model suggests the most likely explanation is that the asteroid was captured by Jupiter as it hurtled through the solar system from interstellar space. "It means it is an alien to the solar system," he said.
But there was a clue there was something unusual about BZ509: while previous studies suggested retrograde centaurs stay gravitationally "tied" to planets for 10,000 years at most, recent work had suggested this asteroid's orbit had been linked to Jupiter for far longer, probably as a result of the planet's mass and the way both take the same time to orbit the sun. The discovery provides vital clues as to the asteroid's origins. [Dr Fathi Namouni from the Observatory de la Cote d'Azur said] that the model suggests the most likely explanation is that the asteroid was captured by Jupiter as it hurtled through the solar system from interstellar space. "It means it is an alien to the solar system," he said.
it's going the other way (Score:2, Funny)
Re:First! (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, they have do idea if it is the first extra-solar visitor or not. It is simply the first one they have noticed, and that was only because of its peculiar orbit. There could be a hundred others that either orbited with the planets, or that crashed into a planet or the sun. We'll never know.
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Why does it especially have to come from outside to be "captured" by Jupiter?
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Several, like BZ509, are known to have retrograde paths, although how they ended up on such orbits is unclear.
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Re:First! (Score:4, Funny)
Lets build a Dysonsphere along the Oort Cloud and have the Alpha Centorians pay for it.
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Isn't that what the Ort Cloud is? Or at least the beginning of?
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Much like how we already have a border checkpoints on roads, and fencing and a wall along the more populated areas of the border?
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Thats hardly fair.
The Alpha Centorians worked hard to build their Oort fence around us..
Ah ha! (Score:4, Funny)
Now we know how our Octopodian Overlords got here.
The only remaining loose end to this mystery is whether they consider Pluto a planet.
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The only remaining loose end to this mystery is whether they consider Pluto a planet.
I thought Pluto was a cash cow that could never die*.
Oops .. wrong Pluto
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*Hmm .. now I am wondering if the Zombie apocalypse will actually be financial in nature as the world is consumed by un-dead copywrite laws
British (Score:5, Funny)
Re:British (Score:5, Funny)
Damn tourists, driving on the wrong side of the road.
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If you're driving on the left side of the road then by definition you're not driving on the right side of the road.
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I'm an Englishman living in the US. In my first year of living in the US I had multiple people tell me they were impressed with how well I spoke the language for a recent immigrant. One went even further and told me "wow, it's like you're almost fluent".
Are you sure they didn't call you a potty mouth? AS in you speak affluent ?
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affluent
That's a pretty rich joke, but I think you meant effluent.
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affluent
That's a pretty rich joke, but I think you meant effluent.
I do love puns... Spelling though? Not so much. Thanks for both the pun and correction.
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Well, you could have tried to fake a german accent?
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Remaining So Not British (Score:2)
Are you sure it isn't just a British asteroid?
Yes. If it were it would be brexiting the solar system not remaining.
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It can just as well be, that it merely got turned around by getting too near to Jupiter and swinging around.
It is a well-known hypothesis that Jupiter protects the inner planets from asteroids coming from the outer solar system.
I see no conclusions being "jumped to".
A Differential hypothesis is the bedrock of science. Make the hypothesis, then try to disprove it.
In fact, your first sentence is a hypothesis. Your second sentence is in defense of it
Now, you need to look at orbital periods, work your way backwards.
Where it falls apart is you trying to use your first and only defense to disprove any other hypothesis. You rent there yet - you need to be proving your hypothesis with as much data as you can muster.
And some
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Did you seriously not get that I said that the hypothesis is a retarded one, given far more obvious ones,or did you just /have/ to grab that straw-man, just to attack something?
Please go meet some actual humans, and learn some common sense and common implications.
Hi there random AC on Slashdot. You really missed the part where I said you have to defend your thesis.
So defend it, its not my job, because I accept the science here.
In the meantime, simulations running back to the origin of our solar system indicate that the object was always in a retrograde path, not an orbit forced by Joopidur. It didn't go "too near" other than to go into orbit, and in the same direction it was already going. Merely captured into orbit in the directrion it was already going.
So
False alarm. (Score:2)
A journalist just caught the tail end of an epic diss-fest between two astronomers asserting that "your mama so fat..." ;)
So let's send a probe (Score:5, Interesting)
In reality it would still be quite interesting to analyse its composition.
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Whatever we find out about BZ509 tells us absolutely nothing about how the sun and planets formed.
We have lots of material to study that was formed in this solar system, and have obtained virgin, uncontaminated material from both asteroids and comets, with more samples and sample missions in the pipeline.
But aside from seven interstellar dust particles recovered in the Wild II mission we don't have anything from outside the solar system to compare our solar system samples with.
Being able to study material formed in other star systems is absolutely going to help us understand how our sun and planets form
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Re:So let's send a probe (Score:4, Interesting)
Zorpheus observed:
In any space game this unusual object would certainly be an important artifact.
In reality it would still be quite interesting to analyse its composition.
I don't disagree about the scientific importance of this body. OTOH, "send a probe" is a non-trivial undertaking, when that probe will have to overcome the Earth's orbital velocity, then further accelerate to the orbital velocity of this retrograde object.
That's a helluva lot of delta vee.
I'm not saying it's impossible. Taking advantage of carefully-calculated gravitational slingshot trajectories ought to permit it - but it's going to take a more powerful launch system than currently exists, regardless. So we're talking about needing the SLS, or SpaceX's BFR, or Blue Origin's New Glenn booster to make it happen.
The first one won't be operational until no earlier than 2026 (assuming it hits its development schedule, which I don't think is at all a safe assumption). New Glenn might be launch-ready by, say, 2022 or so. Or it might not. The BFR? I'm guessing late 2020 at the earliest. And all three of those systems will have a LONG list of payloads lined up ahead of any at-this-point-theoretical probe to this admittedly-interesting destination - for which there's certainly no room in NASA's budget at the moment.
New, multiple-billion-dollar, 10-year or more NASA projects don't just appear AIBFM - and the current Congress seems to have little appetite for pure science projects. Or were you expecting the ESA, Roscsmos, or the CNSA to tackle it?
Because I don't think any one of them has the capability. Or the mandate ...
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Helluva a lot easier than trying to catch another Oumuamua which we will only detect near the Sun (i.e. shortly before exiting), and has a solar velocity excess of 26 km/s, or 2.6 times more kinetic energy than any rocket boosted object in human history (which was the New Horizons probe).
This one is staying here on a known orbit, gravitationally bound to the Sun. An ion drive or Hall Effect thruster is a good candidate for this mission as it can reach much high velocities than chemical rockets, and the long
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two part probe: Once in the orbit of the asteroid, they detach from each other, and one will collide with the object, and the other will scoop up debris as it passes immediately after to return or analyze. No need to actually match speeds.
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"send a probe" is a non-trivial undertaking
How hard can it be. Have you seen the type of people ET's probe? There isn't even any mass transit systems in those places. If you turn on the History channel these days you'd think half of the people in the mid-west have been probed.
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As you imply, you just do what probably happened to the object itself, and use a couple of gravity assist swings to reverse direction.
Why would it need a powerful launch system? we sent probes much MUCH further a long LONG time ago..
Orbital mechanics dont work the way you seem to think they work. Its pretty much energy OR time to get somewhere.. a heavy launch can
reduce time, but not have a great effect on possibility..
There is a LOT of assumptions in this 'analysis', because there is actually little real r
BUILD THE WALL!!! (Score:3, Funny)
"interstellar immigrant" ? They can be stopped!
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Go home asteroid - you are drunk. (Score:3)
.fff
Illegal immigrants breaking orbiting laws (Score:2)
Driver comment (Score:2)
Asteroid driver D. Duck was heard to say, "Oopf! Put the silly thing in reverse!"
Old drivers (Score:2)
Think the laws don't apply to them.
Orbital Tag? (Score:1)
One has to wonder how long it can cross Jupiter's orbit (in the opposite direction, no less) before the two eventually meet?
I'm sure the encounter will be more detrimental to the asteroid than to Jupiter.
Now we know where it is... (Score:2)
And when we send a probe to it, we know what we'll see... don't we, Mr. Clarke?
#insert "ThusSpakeZarathustra"
Send a probe! (Score:2)
This small rock will provide some lucky astronomers with an entire career's worth of knowledge and investigation. Gotta say, I'm kind of jealous.
Quick! (Score:1)
/s, seriously, fuck the ESA but we should check this out.
Ummm...Triton (Score:2)