1 00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:07,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,560 --> 00:00:11,800 Speaker 1: Lauren bob Obam. Here lurking near the orbit of Jupiter 3 00:00:12,039 --> 00:00:15,680 Speaker 1: is an asteroid like no other. It's an alien from 4 00:00:15,720 --> 00:00:19,520 Speaker 1: another star system. This visitor may have arrived at our 5 00:00:19,560 --> 00:00:22,799 Speaker 1: solar system billions of years ago and didn't buy a 6 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:27,320 Speaker 1: return ticket. It's now a permanent resident, trying to blend in. 7 00:00:28,840 --> 00:00:31,760 Speaker 1: Alas blending in is hard to do when you're orbiting 8 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:35,240 Speaker 1: the Sun the wrong way, it's also a possible sign 9 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:38,599 Speaker 1: that the asteroid wasn't born here. It was first discovered 10 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:42,200 Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen by astronomers working at the Leakala Observatory 11 00:00:42,280 --> 00:00:46,440 Speaker 1: on Maui and given the designation twenty fifteen b Z 12 00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:51,839 Speaker 1: five h nine. It's since been given a Hawaiian name, Eavela, 13 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:59,040 Speaker 1: and is affectionately called Bezed. To understand why Bezed's retrograde 14 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:01,560 Speaker 1: orbit is a old hill sign that it isn't from 15 00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:05,240 Speaker 1: round these parts, we first must realize why the planets 16 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:09,119 Speaker 1: all orbit the same way around the Sun. Our star 17 00:01:09,240 --> 00:01:12,320 Speaker 1: was born from a dense region inside a stellar nursery 18 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:16,280 Speaker 1: also known as a molecular cloud, as the gas and 19 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:20,360 Speaker 1: dust clumped together under gravity to spark the first nuclear 20 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:24,560 Speaker 1: reactions that would become our sun. The cloud spun increasingly 21 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:28,960 Speaker 1: faster around that protostar as the material collapsed of physical 22 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:33,679 Speaker 1: consequence of the conservation of angular momentum. Over time, a 23 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:38,360 Speaker 1: protoplanetary disk of material formed, all spinning in the same direction. 24 00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:42,399 Speaker 1: Everything that was born from this disc, all of our 25 00:01:42,440 --> 00:01:46,760 Speaker 1: planets and asteroids, orbited in the same direction like clockwork. 26 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:53,600 Speaker 1: Buta orbits the wrong way, a sign that's something strange 27 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:57,520 Speaker 1: is afoot. And it's not just the asteroids retrograde orbit 28 00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:00,720 Speaker 1: that reveals that it came from another star. It's also 29 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:03,240 Speaker 1: the length of time that it's been living in that orbit. 30 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 1: For the article, this episode is based on How Stuff Works. 31 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:11,520 Speaker 1: Spoke with fatid Na Muni, an astronomer at the Cote 32 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:14,840 Speaker 1: Diazor Observatory in France and the lead author of a 33 00:02:14,840 --> 00:02:17,400 Speaker 1: study looking into the asteroids orbit that was published in 34 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:21,000 Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. He said, it's not the fact that the 35 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:24,040 Speaker 1: asteroid now has a retrograde orbit that makes it of 36 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:27,399 Speaker 1: interstellar origin. It's the fact that it had the same 37 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:31,240 Speaker 1: orbit four point five billion years ago. That is the 38 00:02:31,320 --> 00:02:38,000 Speaker 1: only evidence, and it is incontrovertible. Namuni and co author 39 00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:42,440 Speaker 1: Helena Morris of Sal Paulo University in Brazil ran sophisticated 40 00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:45,880 Speaker 1: computer simulations of BEZ to figure out that it was 41 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:49,000 Speaker 1: likely captured over four and a half billion years ago 42 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:51,640 Speaker 1: by the gravity of our young son when it was 43 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:56,040 Speaker 1: starting to evolve with its stellar siblings. They found that 44 00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:59,919 Speaker 1: it wasn't just an asteroid born from the Sun's protoplanetary 45 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:03,680 Speaker 1: disc that was gravitationally disturbed by a massive planet and 46 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:07,520 Speaker 1: flipped into retrograde orbit. Nope, it had to come from 47 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:11,920 Speaker 1: outside the Solar System, and like a gravitational catcher's mit, 48 00:03:12,040 --> 00:03:15,079 Speaker 1: the Sun caught the interstellar orphan and adopted it as 49 00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:20,200 Speaker 1: its own. More I said in a press statement. Asteroid 50 00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:24,280 Speaker 1: immigration from other star systems occurs because the Sun initially 51 00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:27,919 Speaker 1: formed in a tightly packed star cluster where every star 52 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,560 Speaker 1: had its own system of planets and asteroids. The close 53 00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:34,720 Speaker 1: proximity of the stars, aided by the gravitational forces of 54 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:39,400 Speaker 1: the planets, help these systems attract, remove and capture asteroids 55 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:45,000 Speaker 1: from one another. There are a handful of known retrograde 56 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,200 Speaker 1: objects in our Solar System, and the researchers think that 57 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:52,440 Speaker 1: alab isn't the only one. To have originated from another star. 58 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:57,600 Speaker 1: During the earliest epoch of our solar system, many asteroids 59 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:01,000 Speaker 1: were likely transferred from star to star, and the researchers 60 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:04,720 Speaker 1: are in the process of identifying other interstellar adoptees that 61 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:08,280 Speaker 1: were captured by our solar system and have orbits near 62 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:13,960 Speaker 1: massive Jupiter. Namuni said, from our work, we see that 63 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:17,200 Speaker 1: if objects similar to be Z were captured by Jupiter 64 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:20,440 Speaker 1: at the same time and had slightly different orbits, they 65 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:23,240 Speaker 1: do not stay with Jupiter like BEZ for four and 66 00:04:23,279 --> 00:04:26,719 Speaker 1: a half billion years. They tend to leave Jupiter's orbit 67 00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:30,520 Speaker 1: and go beyond Neptune and assume polar orbits, that is, 68 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:34,960 Speaker 1: orbits that are perpendicular to the ecliptic. We are currently 69 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:37,800 Speaker 1: studying the known asteroids of that type to see if 70 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:42,120 Speaker 1: we can link them to be Z. A one exciting 71 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:46,480 Speaker 1: thing about Okavleb is that it's staying local and thus 72 00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:49,520 Speaker 1: could be a potential target for a future spacecraft mission. 73 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:54,200 Speaker 1: If we could directly sample material from BEZ, we could 74 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:59,080 Speaker 1: study the composition of an ancient exoplanetary system. In doing so, 75 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:02,560 Speaker 1: we might learn surprises about the evolution of our own planet. 76 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:06,840 Speaker 1: For example, depending on whether we found water with a 77 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:10,839 Speaker 1: similar isotopic composition to Earth's water on the asteroid, we 78 00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:14,360 Speaker 1: might be able to figure out whether interstellar asteroids contributed 79 00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:17,839 Speaker 1: to the delivery of water to our planet, a discovery 80 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:21,280 Speaker 1: that may have profound implications for the origins of life 81 00:05:21,279 --> 00:05:27,640 Speaker 1: on Earth. Although exciting, some experts aren't convinced of Beza's 82 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:31,600 Speaker 1: interstellar beginnings, arguing that it might instead be an extinguished 83 00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:36,560 Speaker 1: comment whether or not it's truly interstellar. More research is 84 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:40,400 Speaker 1: needed to study its chemical composition, perhaps via a sample 85 00:05:40,440 --> 00:05:43,200 Speaker 1: return mission, to see whether it's made from the same 86 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:46,720 Speaker 1: material that's seated our solar system billions of years ago. 87 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:54,560 Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article and alien asteroid's 88 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:57,039 Speaker 1: been lurking in our solar system since the beginning on 89 00:05:57,120 --> 00:06:01,240 Speaker 1: houstofworks dot com. Written by Ian O'Neill. Brainstuff is production 90 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:04,040 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio in partnership with Hastuffworks dot Com and is 91 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:06,960 Speaker 1: produced by Tyler klang A. Four more podcasts from my 92 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:10,599 Speaker 1: heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 93 00:06:10,640 --> 00:06:12,039 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.