<h2>Interstellar Visitor</h2>
<p>Millions of gigantic space rocks could be traveling the galaxy, eventually reaching new star systems where they settle down to help form planets.</p>
<p>At least, that&#8217;s the gist of a <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1903.04451.pdf">new scientific paper</a> shared on the preprint server <em>ArXiv</em> on Monday.</p>
<p>&#8220;It’s not a very efficient process, but you’re starting out with so many of them that you still end up with plenty,&#8221; Susanne Pfalzner of Germany&#8217;s Jülich Supercomputing Center <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2196552-earth-may-be-partly-made-of-rocks-from-elsewhere-in-the-galaxy/">told <em>New Scientist</em></a>.</p>
<h2>Odd One Out</h2>
<p>So far, scientists have only ever detected one such interstellar visitor, a comet that astronomers named <a href="https://futurism.com/alien-probe-harvard-astronomer-oumuamua">&#8216;Oumuamua</a>. But the German and British researchers behind this new paper argue that many more have likely passed through our solar system, either being too small or dark to spot without a healthy dose of luck.</p>
<p>If they fall into orbit at a protoplanetary disk, where dust and other space-stuff circles a young star, one of these interstellar travelers could serve as the base to form a new planet much faster than they would grow on their own, they argue in the paper.</p>
<p>&#8220;If planet-forming discs were seeded with large rocks in this way, then it would accelerate the planet formation process significantly,&#8221; University of Leicester astrophysicist Richard Alexander, who didn&#8217;t work on the study, told <em>New Scientist</em>.</p>
<h2>Chia Pet</h2>
<p>The new paper doesn&#8217;t mention Earth by name, but if the hypothesis holds up to further scrutiny, then it&#8217;s technically possible that an interstellar visitor could have acted as the seed around which our home eventually grew.</p>
<p>&#8220;A fraction of planets could have had an &#8216;Oumuamua at their heart,&#8221; Michele Bannister, an astrophysicist at Queens University Belfast, told <em>New Scientist</em>. &#8220;You&#8217;re not going to have any trace of it anymore, but it’s a lovely thought.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2196552-earth-may-be-partly-made-of-rocks-from-elsewhere-in-the-galaxy/">Earth may be partly made of rocks from elsewhere in the galaxy</a> [<em>New Scientist</em>]</p>
<p><strong>More on &#8216;Oumuamua:</strong> <em><a href="https://futurism.com/first-ever-interstellar-asteroid-start-new-era-astronomy">The First-Ever Interstellar Asteroid Is the Start of a New Era in Astronomy</a></em></p>


"A fraction of planets could have had an 'Oumuamua at their heart. You're not going to have any trace of it anymore, but it’s a lovely thought."

Interstellar visitor like 'Oumuamua may have formed Earth's core

Planetary Seeds

A new scientific hypothesis posits that interstellar rocks like 'Oumuamua could have helped form planets throughout the galaxy.

Interstellar Visitor Like ‘Oumuamua May Have Formed Earth’s Core

Orphaned space rocks could enter a solar system's orbit and form into a planet.

<h2>Alien Probe</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-if-true-this-could-be-one-of-the-greatest-discoveries-in-human-history-1.6828318" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new interview</a> with the Israeli newspaper <em>Haaretz</em>, the chair of Harvard University&#8217;s Astronomy Department Avi Loeb defended his <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/06/health/oumuamua-alien-probe-harvard-intl/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">controversial hypothesis</a> that the interstellar object known as &#8216;Oumuamua could be an alien probe — and speculated at length about the place of humanity in the cosmos.</p>
<p>&#8220;As soon as we leave the solar system, I believe we will see a great deal of traffic out there,&#8221; he told <em>Haaretz</em>. &#8220;Possibly we’ll get a message that says, &#8216;Welcome to the interstellar club.&#8217; Or we’ll discover multiple dead civilizations — that is, we’ll find their remains.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Quadrillion More</h2>
<p>After astronomers first spotted the object later dubbed &#8216;Oumuamua — a Hawaiian word <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/11/6/18068236/oumuamua-cigar-shaped-comet-asteroid-alien-spaceship-light-sail-harvard-astrophysical-journal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">that means</a> &#8220;messenger sent from the distant past to reach out to us&#8221; — Loeb and a colleague <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1810.11490.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speculated that</a> a hypothetical propulsion device called a solar sail could explain its odd trajectory. Another odd finding was that the object&#8217;s brightness from reflected sunlight <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/6-strange-facts-about-the-interstellar-visitor-oumuamua/">changed by a factor</a> of ten as it spun, implying that it could be a cigar- or pancake-shaped object tumbling through space — an extremely unusual geometry for naturally-occurring asteroids.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://futurism.com/astronomers-gearing-listen-evidence-aliens-mysterious-interstellar-object" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attempt to listen for radio signals</a> from the mysterious object came up dry, but Loeb told <em>Haaretz</em> that he stands by the possibility that the probe is of intelligent origin.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have no way of knowing whether it’s active technology, or a spaceship that is no longer operative and is continuing to float in space,&#8221; Loeb told <em>Haaretz</em>. &#8220;But if Oumuamua was created together with a whole population of similar objects that were launched randomly, the fact that we discovered it means that its creators launched a quadrillion probes like it to every star in the Milky Way.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Not Speculation</h2>
<p>Loeb has embarked on a media blitz recently, giving a <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/astronomer-avi-loeb-on-the-interstellar-body-oumuamua-a-1246803.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">separate interview</a> last week in which he predicted the impact on humanity of <a href="https://futurism.com/harvard-astronomer-predicts-first-alien-contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discovering an extraterrestrial civilization</a>. In the interview with <em>Haaretz</em>, he suggested that the universe could be littered with alien societies and that Earthling scientists should focus on finding evidence of them.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our approach should be an archaeological one,&#8221; he said. &#8220;In the same way we dig in the ground to find cultures that no longer exist, we must dig in space in order to discover civilizations that existed outside the planet Earth.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;The search for extraterrestrial life is not speculation,&#8221; he added. &#8220;It’s a lot less speculative than the assumption that there is dark matter — invisible matter that constitutes 85 percent of the material in the universe.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-if-true-this-could-be-one-of-the-greatest-discoveries-in-human-history-1.6828318" target="_blank" rel="noopener">If True, This Could Be One of the Greatest Discoveries in Human History</a> [<i>Haaretz</i>]</p>
<p><em><strong>More on alien life: </strong><a href="https://futurism.com/harvard-astronomer-predicts-first-alien-contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Harvard Astronomer Predicts What First Alien Contact Will Be Like</a></em></p>


The head of Harvard's Astronomy Department is standing by his hypothesis.

Harvard astronomer defends hypothesis that object is alien probe

Ayy LMAO

The chair of Harvard University's Astronomy Department defended his controversial hypothesis that interstellar object Oumuamua could be an alien probe.

Harvard Astronomer Defends Hypothesis That Object Is Alien Probe

"We have no way of knowing whether it’s active technology, or a spaceship that is no longer operative and is continuing to float in space."

<h2>A Mysterious Visitor</h2>
<p>The recent sighting of <a href="https://futurism.com/first-ever-interstellar-asteroid-start-new-era-astronomy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interstellar asteroid &#8216;Oumuamua</a> (formally 1I/2017 U1) has scientists stirring with questions. Shaped like a cigar, the mysterious <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/12/570167473/astronomers-want-to-know-does-this-interstellar-visitor-have-a-message-for-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">traveling space rock</a> is the first interstellar visitor scientists have observed in our solar system, and while it is most likely of natural origin, there are some who, at least initially, suggested it could have been <a href="https://futurism.com/astronomers-gearing-listen-evidence-aliens-mysterious-interstellar-object/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">intentionally crafted</a>.</p>
<p>Now, in the most recent finding about the object, researchers have noted that &#8216;Oumuamua has a layer of &#8220;organic sunscreen&#8221; that protects it from exposure to the Sun. The research has been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-017-0361-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published in the journal </a><i>Nature.</i></p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nYGs92-qnFY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>To find this out about our first interstellar visitor, a team of researchers, led by astronomer Alan Fitzsimmons, performed spectroscopic observations using equipment at two different facilities: the ACAM auxillary port imager and spectrograph on the 4.2m <a href="http://astrolapalma.com/en/william-herschel-telescope" target="_blank" rel="noopener">William Herschel Telescope (WHT)</a> on La Palma and the X-shooter spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory&#8217;s 8.2m <a href="http://www.eso.org/public/usa/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Very Large Telescope (VLT)</a>.</p>
<p>The team found that the object has a lack of surface ice and that its spectroscopic characteristics are comparable to the organically rich surfaces discovered in the outer solar system. They claim this is in line with predictions that long-term cosmic ray exposure gave &#8216;Oumuamua an insulating mantle.</p>
<h2>Questions of Origin</h2>
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/when-did-life-on-earth-first-appear/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/05/Homepage-Thumbnail-30.jpg" alt="How Life Evolved on Earth (Infographic)" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><strong><a href="https://futurism.com/images/when-did-life-on-earth-first-appear/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></strong></figure>
<p>The researchers believe &#8216;Oumuamua&#8217;s outer &#8220;layer&#8221; is approximately .5 meters (1.6 feet) thick and that it could be preventing an icy inner core from vaporizing under the heat of the Sun. This ice is of particular interest because it could signal the possibility for life.</p>
<p>Though our understanding of our solar system&#8217;s origin and the origins of life in the universe are ever-improving, there&#8217;s still much we don&#8217;t know.</p>
<p>Researchers believe that comets and asteroids were ejected into interstellar space when our solar system formed and evolved, so assuming that this happens in other planetary systems, too, anything that we learn about our first interstellar visitor could improve our understanding of both our own solar system and others throughout the universe.</p>


Signs of life could be hidden beneath 'Oumuamua's outer layer.

Our first interstellar visitor is covered in a layer of "organic sunscreen"

Off World

Researchers say our first interstellar visitor has a natural layer of protection against the Sun's cosmic rays, and it could be covering an icy core.

Our First Interstellar Visitor Is Covered in a Layer Of "Organic Sunscreen"

The asteroid's mantle may be protecting an icy core.

Our First Interstellar Visitor Is Covered in a Layer Of “Organic Sunscreen”

<h2>A New Type of Asteroid</h2>
<p>As much as we know about our own Solar System and our wider universe, there&#8217;s still an astronomically high number of things we don&#8217;t know. While missions like <a href="https://futurism.com/a-newly-proposed-space-mission-could-unlock-the-mysteries-of-the-universe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA&#8217;s SPHEREx</a> and <a href="https://futurism.com/nasa-voyager-spacecrafts-still-going-strong-40-years-later/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Voyager 2</a> have, and will continue to, shed some light on previously unseen aspects of our universe and interstellar space, we&#8217;ve still got a long road ahead of us before we can begin to explore that space in earnest.</p>
<p>On October 19,<a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171120120935.htm?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=facebook" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> an interstellar </a><a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171120120935.htm?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=facebook">asteroid</a> was detected by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii. While it was initially classified as a comet, additional observations revealed it to be an asteroid that had originated from interstellar space.</p>
<figure style="width: 820px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-111959 size-large aligncenter" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/11/eso1737a-1-1200x750.jpg" alt="Artist's impression of the interstellar asteroid Oumuamua. Image Credit: European Southern Observatory" width="820" height="512" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Artist&#8217;s impression of the interstellar asteroid Oumuamua. Image Credit: European Southern Observatory</figcaption></figure>
<p>Unfortunately, the asteroid (named`Oumuamua), was on its way back to interstellar space when it was spotted, leaving astronomers little time to study it. The European Southern Observatory&#8217;s (ESO) <a href="http://www.eso.org/public/usa/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Very Large Telescope</a> was brought in to provide additional analysis of the asteroid&#8217;s orbit, brightness, and color, <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1737/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealing it was much longer</a> than the asteroids we&#8217;re used to observing and had a very different color.</p>
<p>“This unusually large variation in brightness means that the object is highly elongated: about ten times as long as it is wide, with a complex, convoluted shape,&#8221; explained <a href="http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~meech/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Karen Meech</a>, an astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy in Hawaii. &#8220;We also found that it has a dark red color, similar to objects in the outer Solar System, and confirmed that it is completely inert, without the faintest hint of dust around it.”</p>
<h2>The First of Many?</h2>
<p>According to Meech and her team,`Oumuamua is roughly 400 meters (1,312 feet) long. It&#8217;s incredibly dense, likely made up of a rocky or high metal content, though it has no water or ice. As for its reddish color, that could be a result of irradiation from cosmic rays, which the asteroid could have been exposed to over the millions of years it&#8217;s been traveling through space.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/solar-system-s-first-interstellar-visitor-dazzles-scientists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to NASA</a>, both the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes are still tracking`Oumuamua. As of November 20, it&#8217;s currently traveling at 38.3 kilometers per second (85,700 mph). It&#8217;s expected to pass through Jupiter&#8217;s orbit in May 2018, followed by Saturn&#8217;s orbit in January 2019.</p>
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<p>As we continue to monitor out stars and the rest of our Solar System, we&#8217;re going to need more powerful telescopes capable of keeping up with new discoveries — including any future interstellar asteroids the ESO expects to come across. To this end, <a href="https://futurism.com/the-long-awaited-construction-of-the-worlds-largest-telescope-is-underway/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">construction is underway</a> for <a href="https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/eelt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the European Extremely Large Telescope’s (E-ELT)</a>, which the ESO explains will &#8220;allow us to address many of the most pressing unsolved questions about our Universe&#8221; when it begins operations in 2024.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s also <a href="https://jwst.nasa.gov/about.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)</a>, which is being developed by NASA in collaboration with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Expected to launch in 2019, the JWST will &#8220;study every phase in the history of our Universe,&#8221; including the Big Bang, the creation of our Solar System, and its evolution.</p>
<p>Our current technology has been able to give us some important information about`Oumuamua, but imagine what we&#8217;ll be able to learn when both the E-ELT and JWST are up and running.`Oumuamua took millions of years to reach us, but with more powerful telescopes, we may be able to see where it came from in interstellar space — and anything else coming our way.</p>


As we continue to monitor stars and the rest of our Solar System, we're going to need more powerful telescopes capable of keeping up with new discoveries.

The first-ever interstellar asteroid is the start of a new era in astronomy

Artist’s impression of the interstellar asteroid `Oumuamua

Named Oumuamua, the first-ever interstellar asteroid is suspected to have been traveling for millions of years before wandering into our Solar System.

/Oumuamua

Planetary Seeds

Interstellar Visitor Like ‘Oumuamua May Have Formed Earth’s Core

Ayy LMAO

Harvard Astronomer Defends Hypothesis That Object Is Alien Probe

Off World

Our First Interstellar Visitor Is Covered in a Layer Of “Organic Sunscreen”

Off World

The First-Ever Interstellar Asteroid Is the Start of a New Era in Astronomy

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