Scientists have proposed an explanation for the unusual orbit of the interstellar asteroid Oumuamua. This was reported by the University of California at Berkeley.
1I/Oumuamua is an interstellar asteroid discovered in 2017. It flew through the solar system, entered at about 26 km/s and accelerated to 87 km/s due to the Sun’s gravity. However, its orbit was different from the truly hyperbolic one, as if some other forces were acting on the asteroid in addition to gravity. This happens regularly with comets that begin to release gas as they heat up in the sun, forming a tail and coma. The ejected gases generate a small amount of thrust, just enough to slightly deflect the orbit. But ‘Oumuamua had no tail and no coma, and it wasn’t a comet.
Jennifer Bergner and her colleagues have proposed an explanation for this phenomenon. They went back to old experiments in the 70s and found that when the ice collided with high-energy particles similar to cosmic rays, molecular hydrogen was massively formed and trapped inside the ice. Cosmic rays can penetrate tens of meters into the ice and turn a quarter or more of the volume of water into hydrogen gas. According to scientists, as the asteroid approached the Sun, hydrogen began to eject from it and create jet thrust. Calculations showed that the solar energy falling on the asteroid was not sufficient to sublimate water or organic compounds on its surface to give the asteroid the observed non-gravity thrust. Only volatile gases such as hydrogen, nitrogen, or carbon monoxide (CO) can provide enough acceleration to give the body an observable trajectory. Also, according to experimental data, ice can emit hydrogen when heated without sublimating itself.
Earlier astronomers discoveredSmall stars can have large planets.