The Mystery Of The First-Ever Interstellar Object Finally Explained

Bright Side

We discovered this strange space object in 2017 but still don't know what it is exactly. An asteroid, a comet, a spaceship of some outer space civilization? Scientists gave it a strange name: Oumuamua. But there's something that makes this object similar to Pluto... Let's find out what it is and maybe it can reveal the mysterious origin of that space object.  #brightside  Preview photo credit: Artist’s impression of the interstellar asteroid `Oumuamua: By ESO/M. Kornmesser, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64361447 Animation is created by Bright Side.

Transcript

00:00Whoa! A wall of fire spreads around the epicenter of the impact. It burns everything in its path.

00:08The waves raised by the explosion cover large cities.

00:12And earthquakes are so strong that giant skyscrapers fall like a house of cards.

00:17So, these are the possible consequences of the collision with the first interstellar object in history to visit our solar system.

00:24We discovered it in 2017, but we're still not sure what it is.

00:28An asteroid, a comet, or a spaceship of some outer space civilization.

00:33So far, scientists have named it Oumuamua. Sounds like a Hawaiian cow.

00:40Well, whatever it is, its speed is much faster than other asteroids. About 54 miles per second.

00:46At that speed, you could cross the U.S. from coast to coast in less than 3 minutes.

00:51So, this asteroid could travel from Earth to the Sun in about 2 months.

00:56By comparison, our rockets can travel up to 17,000 miles per hour.

01:01The same trip across the United States would take them about 9 minutes.

01:06So, many scientists speculate that this is an artificial object created by a very advanced civilization.

01:13Okay.

01:13The shape of the object supports this theory.

01:17It's long and narrow and resembles a spaceship.

01:20It's about half a mile long, way bigger than the Eiffel Tower.

01:24Scientists decided to see if Oumuamua was really someone's spaceship and pointed some radio telescopes at it.

01:31If the civilization on that ship had used communication or scanned us with their tech, we would have known about it.

01:38But there was complete silence.

01:41Kind of like that.

01:42Not a single radio wave.

01:44But that doesn't disprove the theory of outer space civilization.

01:49To find out for sure, we decided to determine the weight of the object.

01:53To do that, we use light.

01:55More precisely, its reflection.

01:58You see, different materials reflect light differently.

02:00We take an unknown black stone, for example.

02:04It absorbs almost all the light, reflecting almost nothing.

02:08Check out the catalog.

02:09It's charcoal.

02:10Knowing the size and material of the object, we can determine its weight.

02:14So, we need to see how much light this object reflects.

02:18And when scientists pointed their telescopes at Oumuamua,

02:21they learned that it reflects colors that match with iron and also with some solid rocks.

02:27And Oumuamua was flashing all the time.

02:30A bright flash.

02:31Then it would slowly fade.

02:33And then it would start to shine again.

02:36This means it was spinning.

02:38And it wasn't going around its axis like an arrow.

02:41It rotated chaotically, moving its edges up and down.

02:45Any artificial object or spacecraft would have been torn apart by such overloads.

02:50But Oumuamua is still intact.

02:52That means it's made of super hard materials that keep it from falling apart.

02:57And it's not hollow like a spaceship.

02:59It's one solid body.

03:01Hey, like me.

03:02The astounding speed of this object makes it pretty mysterious.

03:07Some comets can have the same or even higher speed.

03:10But they also have a kind of rocket effect.

03:13So, when a spaceship starts from the launch pad, you see fire bursting out of its engines.

03:18Every second, the rocket mixes fuel with oxygen, ignites them, and ejects them at a tremendous speed.

03:25According to the laws of physics, this is like pushing off a wall.

03:29The rocket sort of jumps up from the combustion gas as it throws down.

03:33That's how the rocket creates thrust and accelerates.

03:35Comets work on a similar principle.

03:38The sun's rays hit the surface of the comet.

03:41Light elements like ice start to evaporate.

03:44That gas goes one way, the comet goes the other.

03:47Just like a rocket, the comet is pushing off the evaporating gas and accelerates.

03:52This gas also forms the comet's long tail.

03:55It's as if the massive rock is dragging all this gas behind it.

03:59I can relate.

04:00Or it's like a car pulls air with it when it goes at high speed.

04:05But Oumuamua is not a comet.

04:08And it doesn't have that tail.

04:09And it doesn't have the same rocket effect as a comet.

04:13So, it couldn't have accelerated to that speed.

04:16But some scientists believe that Oumuamua used to have a tail.

04:20Although we discovered it in 2017, it entered our solar system in 1995.

04:26And it was hit by the sun's rays even back then.

04:29When we discovered this asteroid, it had already lost about 95% of its mass.

04:35It simply evaporated.

04:37Other scientists believe that Oumuamua got this velocity during its birth,

04:41somewhere far away in another star system or nebula.

04:45Perhaps it was a dramatic collision of some exoplanet with another cosmic object.

04:50The colossal explosive energy of the collision threw the elongated shard into outer space.

04:56Or it could have been a supernova explosion.

05:00When a star reaches the end of its lifespan, it becomes a red giant.

05:04It's an inflated version of the star, hundreds of times bigger.

05:07Then, it shrinks and explodes with tremendous force.

05:11The blast waves can travel many light-years away from the epicenter.

05:15And it's one of the brightest events in the universe.

05:19So, the supernova might have torn some exoplanet to pieces.

05:23One of them, Oumuamua, gained a lot of energy and speed and began its long journey toward Earth.

05:29This might explain why Oumuamua keeps spinning so wildly.

05:34But recently, scientists published a theory that Oumuamua may be a giant block of ice.

05:40The kind of ice we're used to is water, H2O.

05:43But Oumuamua could be nitrogen ice, N2.

05:47It may have remained intact in interstellar space for 500 million years.

05:52And when it arrived in our solar system,

05:55nitrogen ice could have reflected two-thirds of the sun's rays.

05:59So, it didn't heat up as much.

06:01That explains why Oumuamua doesn't have a tail.

06:05You can find the same nitrogen ice on Pluto,

06:08as well as on Triton, one of Neptune's moons.

06:11So, Oumuamua comes from a similar icy exoplanet.

06:15But we can find out for sure only by sending a space probe to it.

06:20Scientists came up with a plan for that called Project Lyra.

06:23The problem is that Oumuamua is leaving our solar system at tremendous speeds.

06:28Much faster than our rockets can fly.

06:31And we need to catch up with this space rock as quickly as possible before it gets too far away.

06:37To do this, we can use a gravity maneuver.

06:40First, the space probe makes a flyby of Jupiter.

06:43It passes close to it to take advantage of its gravity to accelerate.

06:48After that, the probe will head towards the sun.

06:50And it'll fly around it as close as possible to fire like a catapult towards the space rock.

06:57The second option for reaching the asteroid is to use microprobes.

07:01We have to launch about a thousand of them into orbit.

07:04They should be no heavier than a match.

07:06Each of them will have a light sail the size of a boxing ring.

07:10Then, we'll focus a powerful laser beam from the ground onto the sail.

07:14It will allow us to accelerate the probe to about 20% of the speed of light.

07:19It shouldn't go too fast not to fly past the asteroid.

07:23It should be able to enter its orbit or land on it.

07:26But if we're too slow, Oumuamua will leave our solar system before we can catch up with it.

07:32It'll be a great experience because, in the future, we'll be able to use such asteroids as a space taxi.

07:38All we have to do is enter the orbit of such an interstellar asteroid or even land on it.

07:44Then, we would keep moving through space at incredible speeds without using any fuel at all.

07:50This would be a great option for traveling long distances or to deliver supplies to other star systems.

07:56So, why should we be afraid of such objects?

08:00Well, a collision with an asteroid the size of Oumuamua could wipe out an entire state.

08:05If it were to hit somewhere in the ocean, it could cause waves taller than our skyscrapers.

08:11Scientists are anxious to find ways to protect us against such options.

08:15One of them is ramming.

08:16If we spot a potentially hazardous object, we could send a spaceship towards it, pedal to the metal.

08:23The spacecraft will have to ram the asteroid at an angle that will move its trajectory just a little bit.

08:28Moving it too much on a cosmic scale would only dramatically change the asteroid's final destination.

08:34And we only need to get the asteroid past our planet.

08:38We can also create a controlled explosion on the asteroid.

08:42It's based on the same principle.

08:44The force of the explosion would have to shift the trajectory of the asteroid slightly or smash a giant rock into smaller pieces.

08:52Asteroids up to 80 feet wide would burn up completely in our atmosphere due to friction against the air.

08:58Rocks between 80 feet and half a mile in size may not burn up completely and cause local damage.

09:03Anything larger is considered very hazardous.

09:07You think?

09:08The traditional method of science fiction is to put rocket engines on the asteroid.

09:13Then we can not only change the trajectory of the space rock, but also control it.

09:18And we can use it against other asteroids.

09:21It would be something like space billions.

09:22Theological 에 énerg Mister

09:25as follows.

09:25As it moves this важно

09:26And that trains the Voices

09:27just to see whatない

09:27The character is supposed to reveal

09:28It would be something like space

09:28If you say the kanja

09:29It would be something like space

09:29People can demand

09:42And that suddenly the 1stura is nibb, you can't change the percentage of the Nicoip.

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