Some of the odd behavior of the interstellar object may be explained by the
emission of hydrogen from 'Oumuamua.
According to recent study, there may be a plausible explanation for the
strange motions of the interstellar object 'Oumuamua that excludes the
existence of sentient extraterrestrial life.
When scientists noticed the odd interstellar guest speeding away from the
sun's gravitation, they discovered a scientific riddle. This object was the
first extrasolar object ever identified in our solar system. 'Oumuamua was
not a comet, which is why it did not exhibit the strange acceleration that
comets do when the sun begins to warm the ice inside of them. Some
commenters even speculated that 'Oumuamua might be an alien ship in response
to the riddle.
However, a recent research that was released on March 22 in the magazine
Nature offers a less interesting explanation: It's possible that as
'Oumuamua warmed from the sun, hydrogen molecules trapped in the ice beneath
its surface were released, causing a small slowdown in its journey past the
sun. According to main research author
Jennifer Bergner, a chemist at the University of California, Berkeley, these hydrogen
molecules would not have been visible in scientists' observations of
'Oumuamua.
'Oumuamua was first spotted in October 2017 and was visible through a
telescope for about four months before disappearing quickly. Due to its
peculiar characteristics, it created quite a stir during that brief time.
According to NASA, the cigar-shaped object was approximately 1,300 feet (400 meters) long
and possibly 10 times skinnier than that.When it first neared the sun,
scientists believed it might be a comet, but it did not develop a tail or
emit a dust or gas cloud.
If not for the mysterious shifts in speed that the researchers noticed when
it was close by, it might have been mistaken for an asteroid since these
space rocks move only under the effect of gravity.
Numerous studies have attempted to explain both of these findings, but none
have been able to do so without needing extremely precise and improbable
formation situations, according to Bergner.
The course of an object like 'Oumuamua, however, may be able to be
controlled by a light particle, such as hydrogen, according to some
indications. It was modeled by Bergner and her co-author
Darryl Seligman that hydrogen confined inside 'Oumuamua might be the cause of the
object's acceleration. Seligman is a postdoctoral scholar at Cornell
University.
They discovered that the device was capable of holding sufficient hydrogen
to carry out their plan. In this situation, 'Oumuamua was created as a
typical comet-like particle in a distant planetary system. It broke free
from its home system hundreds of millions of years ago and set out on a
lengthy voyage through interstellar space. While traveling through this
region, cosmic radiation struck water that was imprisoned inside of it and
released hydrogen atoms, which then joined to form hydrogen molecules.
The ice in 'Oumuamua, which has an amorphous, glass-like structure at the
extremely low temps of interstellar space, continued to contain these
hydrogen molecules imprisoned within pockets. This ice started to take on a
slightly more ordered structure as 'Oumuamua moved through the relatively
mild environment of our solar system, as if getting ready to transform into
the crystalline ice we are used to on Earth. As it did, enough hydrogen
leaked out to give the object a small boost against the sun's gravity.
Astronomer
Marco Micheli, who works at the Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre of the European
Space Agency in Italy, said, "I think this explanation makes a lot of
sense." According to Micheli, who was not involved in the new research but
wrote a commentary about the work for Nature, "it's probably the most
consistent model so far that fully explains what we observed on 'Oumuamua
without the need for any exotic explanation."
According to Bergner, the hydrogen effect most likely affects typical
comets that are born in the solar system, but it is unlikely to have an
impact on an object's speed or course unless it is very tiny, like
'Oumuamua.
"We can potentially test whether we see outgassing of hydrogen," she said,
"if we can find smaller comets from the Oort cloud [at the edge of the solar
system] as they are coming in."
