WEBVTT - Are There Alien Asteroids in Our Midst?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren bob Obam. Here lurking near the orbit of Jupiter

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<v Speaker 1>is an asteroid like no other. It's an alien from

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<v Speaker 1>another star system. This visitor may have arrived at our

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<v Speaker 1>solar system billions of years ago and didn't buy a

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<v Speaker 1>return ticket. It's now a permanent resident, trying to blend in.

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<v Speaker 1>Alas blending in is hard to do when you're orbiting

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<v Speaker 1>the Sun the wrong way, it's also a possible sign

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<v Speaker 1>that the asteroid wasn't born here. It was first discovered

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<v Speaker 1>in twenty fourteen by astronomers working at the Leakala Observatory

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<v Speaker 1>on Maui and given the designation twenty fifteen b Z

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<v Speaker 1>five h nine. It's since been given a Hawaiian name, Eavela,

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<v Speaker 1>and is affectionately called Bezed. To understand why Bezed's retrograde

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<v Speaker 1>orbit is a old hill sign that it isn't from

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<v Speaker 1>round these parts, we first must realize why the planets

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<v Speaker 1>all orbit the same way around the Sun. Our star

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<v Speaker 1>was born from a dense region inside a stellar nursery

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<v Speaker 1>also known as a molecular cloud, as the gas and

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<v Speaker 1>dust clumped together under gravity to spark the first nuclear

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<v Speaker 1>reactions that would become our sun. The cloud spun increasingly

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<v Speaker 1>faster around that protostar as the material collapsed of physical

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<v Speaker 1>consequence of the conservation of angular momentum. Over time, a

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<v Speaker 1>protoplanetary disk of material formed, all spinning in the same direction.

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<v Speaker 1>Everything that was born from this disc, all of our

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<v Speaker 1>planets and asteroids, orbited in the same direction like clockwork.

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<v Speaker 1>Buta orbits the wrong way, a sign that's something strange

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<v Speaker 1>is afoot. And it's not just the asteroids retrograde orbit

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<v Speaker 1>that reveals that it came from another star. It's also

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<v Speaker 1>the length of time that it's been living in that orbit.

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<v Speaker 1>For the article, this episode is based on How Stuff Works.

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<v Speaker 1>Spoke with fatid Na Muni, an astronomer at the Cote

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<v Speaker 1>Diazor Observatory in France and the lead author of a

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<v Speaker 1>study looking into the asteroids orbit that was published in

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<v Speaker 1>twenty eighteen. He said, it's not the fact that the

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<v Speaker 1>asteroid now has a retrograde orbit that makes it of

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<v Speaker 1>interstellar origin. It's the fact that it had the same

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<v Speaker 1>orbit four point five billion years ago. That is the

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<v Speaker 1>only evidence, and it is incontrovertible. Namuni and co author

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<v Speaker 1>Helena Morris of Sal Paulo University in Brazil ran sophisticated

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<v Speaker 1>computer simulations of BEZ to figure out that it was

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<v Speaker 1>likely captured over four and a half billion years ago

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<v Speaker 1>by the gravity of our young son when it was

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<v Speaker 1>starting to evolve with its stellar siblings. They found that

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<v Speaker 1>it wasn't just an asteroid born from the Sun's protoplanetary

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<v Speaker 1>disc that was gravitationally disturbed by a massive planet and

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<v Speaker 1>flipped into retrograde orbit. Nope, it had to come from

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<v Speaker 1>outside the Solar System, and like a gravitational catcher's mit,

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<v Speaker 1>the Sun caught the interstellar orphan and adopted it as

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<v Speaker 1>its own. More I said in a press statement. Asteroid

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<v Speaker 1>immigration from other star systems occurs because the Sun initially

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<v Speaker 1>formed in a tightly packed star cluster where every star

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<v Speaker 1>had its own system of planets and asteroids. The close

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<v Speaker 1>proximity of the stars, aided by the gravitational forces of

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<v Speaker 1>the planets, help these systems attract, remove and capture asteroids

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<v Speaker 1>from one another. There are a handful of known retrograde

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<v Speaker 1>objects in our Solar System, and the researchers think that

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<v Speaker 1>alab isn't the only one. To have originated from another star.

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<v Speaker 1>During the earliest epoch of our solar system, many asteroids

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<v Speaker 1>were likely transferred from star to star, and the researchers

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<v Speaker 1>are in the process of identifying other interstellar adoptees that

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<v Speaker 1>were captured by our solar system and have orbits near

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<v Speaker 1>massive Jupiter. Namuni said, from our work, we see that

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<v Speaker 1>if objects similar to be Z were captured by Jupiter

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<v Speaker 1>at the same time and had slightly different orbits, they

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<v Speaker 1>do not stay with Jupiter like BEZ for four and

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<v Speaker 1>a half billion years. They tend to leave Jupiter's orbit

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<v Speaker 1>and go beyond Neptune and assume polar orbits, that is,

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<v Speaker 1>orbits that are perpendicular to the ecliptic. We are currently

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<v Speaker 1>studying the known asteroids of that type to see if

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<v Speaker 1>we can link them to be Z. A one exciting

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<v Speaker 1>thing about Okavleb is that it's staying local and thus

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<v Speaker 1>could be a potential target for a future spacecraft mission.

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<v Speaker 1>If we could directly sample material from BEZ, we could

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<v Speaker 1>study the composition of an ancient exoplanetary system. In doing so,

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<v Speaker 1>we might learn surprises about the evolution of our own planet.

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<v Speaker 1>For example, depending on whether we found water with a

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<v Speaker 1>similar isotopic composition to Earth's water on the asteroid, we

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<v Speaker 1>might be able to figure out whether interstellar asteroids contributed

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<v Speaker 1>to the delivery of water to our planet, a discovery

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<v Speaker 1>that may have profound implications for the origins of life

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<v Speaker 1>on Earth. Although exciting, some experts aren't convinced of Beza's

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<v Speaker 1>interstellar beginnings, arguing that it might instead be an extinguished

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<v Speaker 1>comment whether or not it's truly interstellar. More research is

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<v Speaker 1>needed to study its chemical composition, perhaps via a sample

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<v Speaker 1>return mission, to see whether it's made from the same

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<v Speaker 1>material that's seated our solar system billions of years ago.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode is based on the article and alien asteroid's

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<v Speaker 1>been lurking in our solar system since the beginning on

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<v Speaker 1>houstofworks dot com. Written by Ian O'Neill. Brainstuff is production

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<v Speaker 1>of iHeartRadio in partnership with Hastuffworks dot Com and is

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<v Speaker 1>produced by Tyler klang A. Four more podcasts from my

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