WEBVTT - First Messenger From an Alien Star 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:14.000 Works dot com. Hey are you welcome to stuff to 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:15.960 Blow your Mind? My name is Robert lamp and I'm 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:18.960 Joe McCormick, and gather ye round because I am about 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:21.880 to tell a tale of space. Ah well, let's do 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:25.799 it of space and discovery. So on October nineteenth of 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:30.000 this year, of a telescope on a mountain in Hawaii 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:34.120 caught sight of something very strange passing through the sky. 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:38.040 The telescope was the pan STARS one, which stands for 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:42.880 Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System and it's part 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:47.280 of the High Altitude Observatory on holliakla of Volcano on 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:49.800 the island of Maui. Robert, have you been to Hawaii? 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:53.279 I've never been. Yes, I have been once in the 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:56.680 past and actually looking to go back this year. Can 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:00.600 did you climb a volcano? I went into a volcano. 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.960 I mean I went to Volcano National Park on the 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:09.160 Big Island, burned alive and it was reborn. Yeah. But yeah, 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.560 so so picture yourself up on one of these, you know, 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:16.600 Gravelly big craters, the Big Shield volcano. And so the 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:20.800 pan stars program is a system of telescopes, cameras, computers 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.840 that are designed to monitor the sky continuously for signs 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.880 of variable objects. Now, there might be new discoveries of 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:31.480 near Earth asteroids or comets, or there might be like 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:35.560 small minor moons of big planets like Jupiter Saturn that 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:39.240 they discover, or they might be looking at other features 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.440 of the sky that move or change over time. And 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:46.040 on October nineteenth, pan Stars one caught a glimpse of 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:51.400 something that was indeed moving incredibly fast. Immediately they enlisted 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:53.680 the help of other observatories like E. S O S 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:58.640 very large telescope in Chile. And at first what the 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:02.720 scientists thought they saw with a comet. Now, to remind 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:06.520 you on basic Solar system geology, and asteroid is a 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:10.440 small object made of primarily rock and metal, and a 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:14.000 comet is a small object made primarily of dust and ice. 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:17.920 And asteroids were generally formed closer to the Sun where 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:21.440 volatile compounds like H two O would melt or evaporate, 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:24.680 and comets were generally formed farther away from the Sun 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:28.160 where water would freeze. So they have this new object, 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:30.480 they think it's probably a comet. And because they thought 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.760 it was a comet. It got the designated designation see 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:39.280 slash you one see for comet. So the scientists who 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:43.079 discovered it enlisted the help of other of other telescopes 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:46.720 and other scientists, and analysis revealed the path of the object, 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.880 and it was a truly unique one. Pretty Much everything 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:55.400 in our Solar System orbits on a relatively flat plane, 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:57.480 and that's because most of the stuff in the Solar 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:01.480 System was formed out of the same original stellar accretion 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:03.960 disk four and a half to five billion years ago. 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:07.240 If you make a model of the movement of objects 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:09.880 in the Solar System, the angle of their orbital tilt 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.640 with respect to the reference plane of Earth's orbit is 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:17.880 known as their orbital inclination. Now, most planets are within 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:20.280 just a few degrees of us. All the planets are 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.480 relatively flat, except Pluto. Pluto is a good bit more 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.120 tilted than the others, with an inclination of a little 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:29.760 over seventeen degrees, so it's sort of tipped like a hat. 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.240 But the inclination of this new object, discovered in October 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:36.360 is off the charts. It is a hundred and twenty 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:41.600 three degrees according to the JPL data on it. That 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:43.080 means if you were to look at a model of 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:45.440 the Solar System lying flat on a table with all 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:47.720 the orbits, you know, they're they're flat down on the surface. 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:50.880 This thing would be approaching the system from above, not 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:55.000 quite straight down, but close to it, sort of dive 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.480 bombing right through the middle of our galactic neighborhood. Now, 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.400 you might normally see that kind of orbital inclination in 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:06.120 long period comets originating in the Ort cloud, but not 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.760 in planets or asteroids, whose orbits are generally pretty flat. 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:12.360 So here's the thing to wonder. You're you're imagining this 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:15.520 thing dive bombing down into the Solar System. Where did 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:19.119 it cross the plane right? Was it somewhere out near Jupiter? Nope, 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:22.919 it was booking right past the Sun. This object pierced 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.400 inside the orbit of Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:30.120 passing within twenty of the distance between the Sun and 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:32.839 the Earth. So it was less than a quarter of 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:36.520 one astronomical unit. And of course, when you pass that 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:40.000 close to the Sun, the Sun's massive gravity, well really 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:44.160 takes a bite out of your trajectory. And so because 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:46.280 they knew that this had happened, the scientists were able 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:50.120 to construct a model of the object's path. Now, if 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:52.320 you look at some of these maps of what the 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:55.400 objects path looked like zoomed into the scale of the 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:58.360 inner Solar System, it looks sort of like the object 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:01.039 barrels past the Sun and then begins to bend in 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:04.840 its trajectory like a bow. But if you zoom way 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:08.720 out to a map the scale of the orbit of Neptune, say, 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:12.240 the trajectory suddenly looks instead like a giant letter V. 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:16.400 It's straight down to the Sun, sharp turn, then straight 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:19.800 back out of the Solar System, as if it's slingshotted 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:23.359 off of the Sun. Yeah. Now, you might see other 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.719 comets with like largely eccentric orbits. You know, a comet 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:29.600 has an eccentric orbit when it's not very circular, when 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:32.960 it's like this crazy oval shape that comes really close 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:35.039 to the Sun and then goes way far back out 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:38.839 into space. Um. But you don't usually see this kind 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:41.320 of shape. So so once you know how close it 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:44.520 recently passed to the Sun, you should know something else 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.560 about it. If it were a comet, you'd expect to 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:50.840 see what commentary activity he would expect to see it 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:54.400 acting like a comet. The tail of the comet for instance. Exactly. Yeah, 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.719 So a comet is made of volatile stuff. It's made 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:01.040 of gas and dust and water, um, and so it's 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:03.960 frozen into this dirty snowball, this chunk of ice. And 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:06.080 when a comet gets close to the sun, it starts 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.599 to warm up and thaw out. And for a comet, 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:11.039 of course, warming up and thaw out in tails, the 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:13.960 release of gas and dust, uh, the coma, you know, 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.599 the cloud of this haze of dust and gas that 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:20.040 surrounds the comets nucleus. And then as you mentioned, the tails. 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:22.680 Actually two types of tails can show up, the you know, 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.680 the dust tail dragging behind the comet, and the gas 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:28.240 or the ion tail being blown away from the Sun 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:31.360 by the solar wind. So we've got this weird trajectory 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.560 on this crazy commet. And they look for the commentary 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:36.840 activity to look for the tail. They look for the coma, 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:41.240 the gas, the dust, nothing. Astronomers didn't see any of it. 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:44.000 They found that it was pretty much completely inert with 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:47.400 no dust or anything around it. So whatever it was, 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:50.640 it was not made of ice and dust, and so 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:55.000 it wasn't a comet. So instead they decided to reclassify 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:57.200 this I think was about a week after the discovery 0:06:57.279 --> 0:06:59.920 or so, so this would still be like late oct 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:05.159 over probably they reclassified it as an asteroid a slash 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:08.800 you won. Now earlier we mentioned this thing was moving 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:12.240 really fast. How fast is that? Well, at its fastest, 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.240 this would be when it was sling shotting right around 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:19.440 the Sun at its parahelion on September nine of this year. 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:21.680 So they were able to sort of like take what 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:23.920 they knew about it and chart the back course that 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:26.400 had come from. They didn't see it at this point, 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:28.560 but they knew what it had done by modeling it. 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:31.239 At this point, it was going a hundred and ninety 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:34.600 six thousand miles per hour or eight seven point three 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:39.000 kilometers per second. That is pretty fast. And looking at 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:43.000 this speed and at the angle of its trajectory compared 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:46.480 to other objects like long period comets, you start to 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:50.800 notice something different. Most objects that passed near the Sun 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:55.440 bend around the Sun in this elliptical path, indicating they 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:59.280 might go way back out into deep space and they 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:02.800 might have this really great orbital eccentricity, but you give 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.360 them long enough and they'll be back to pass around 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:08.960 the Sun again. They're locked in orbit this new object, 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:14.360 no dice, no orbit. It came from deep space, bent 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:17.520 around the gravity well of our Sun, and then left 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.440 for deep space again, and it won't be coming back. 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.600 What I'm reminded of are these videos that you see 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:27.360 of streakers taking to a major sporting event, you know, 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:30.520 where they just make a bee line onto the field 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:33.800 and then they're almost immediately chased off the field or tackled. 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.800 In this case, the streaker was not tackled, but got 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:41.079 in did this, put on their phenomenal show, and made 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:44.040 a break from it. Yeah, it's perfect. It's a space streaker. Now, 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.240 when you have an orbital path like this, or I 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:48.839 guess it's not an orbital path, Normally an orbital path, 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.680 you'd have some kind of elliptical pattern, but this is 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:55.960 what's known as a hyperbolic trajectory. It forms a hyperbola, 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:58.640 so it's not gonna loop back around. It just bends 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:01.960 around and then goes off on its own way. So 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:06.640 scientists have realized that that makes this object totally unique 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:10.880 in the history of astronomy. This is the first definite 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:16.120 confirmed sighting of an interstellar object in our Solar System. 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:18.920 It's from somewhere else and Thus, instead of being a 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:21.600 slash you one and we'll get to a better name 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:25.360 in a minute, it became one I seen you won 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:30.480 I for interstellar. This object ripping through our Solar system 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:34.319 came from deep interstellar space, and before that it almost 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:39.120 definitely came from another star. And we've never seen anything 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:41.559 like this before. Now, of course, the important caveat here 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:45.000 is is we have never seen it right. And then, 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:47.600 of course we have to take into account the very 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:51.280 small portion of time during which humans have been observing 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:55.080 the cosmos with this degree of detail exactly right, And 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.679 there might be other objects like this that have passed 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.600 before us, even when we've had telescopes. We just didn't 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:04.880 catch them. Because this thing is very small and very 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:09.120 far away and moving very fast, and the direction that 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.240 it's moving very fast in is currently a retreat from Earth. 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:15.319 So it came kind of close to us, and now 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:19.200 it's going and in within some short amount of time 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.240 our telescopes won't be able to see it anymore. I 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:24.360 think one of the amazing things about this story is 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:27.679 that it's exciting on the astronomer astronomer level, Like like 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:32.680 astronomers and scientists are excited about this, Uh, this ongoing study, 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:37.440 and uh, outside commentators, um, the science media and beyond 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:40.520 are also excited about it, but all for good reason, 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.720 Like like, it's not some sort of like geeky level 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.640 of astronomy excitement that one would need to be just 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.720 really in depth in the field to get. And it's 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:53.000 not something that the journalists have to blow out of 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:58.319 proportion in order to to to make extremely fascinating. Yeah, 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:00.959 and it gets weirder. It's gonna get weirder. I think 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:02.720 we should take a break and then when we come 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:05.760 back we can discuss in what ways it gets weirder 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:10.560 than Alright, we're back. So first the good news. We 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:13.079 don't have to keep calling it the objects that we'll 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:15.000 probably use that a little bit. And we definitely don't 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:18.480 have to keep calling it one I slash you one. 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.079 It has a regular name now as the sort of 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:26.120 regular Yes, yes, it is called Oma, which has a 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:29.280 nice ring to it, and it feels comforting somehow, it's 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.400 not frightening. We'll tell me about the name Robert, all right. So, oh, 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:36.160 Muama is Hawaiian for something that is a quote scout 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:39.960 or messenger sent from the distant past to reach out 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:44.600 to us. Yeah, I've seen it translated occasionally as first Messenger. Yeah. 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.120 So this name was chosen in a consultation with Hawaiian 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:53.560 language expert Cayu Kimura and Larry Kimura. Uh And in 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:58.360 this uh word oh means reach out for and uh 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.120 mua with the can mua placing emphasis means first in 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:06.120 advance of, So it's like first first Reacher Outer. Now. 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.760 The Pan Stars Discovery team chose the name, but they 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:14.360 reportedly referred to it at first as Rama uh in 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.120 a reference to the nineteen seventy three Arthur C. Clark 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:21.120 science fiction novel Rendezvous with Rama, which I have still 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:23.319 yet to read. I think I have a paperback copy 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:25.360 of it, but it's a It's a major science fiction 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.280 classic I've only been trying to make a movie out 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:32.240 of for years. I think um Morgan Freeman I believe 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:37.200 was attached to it. But it's set in the thirties 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.679 and concerns a fifty kilometer or thirty one miles cylindrical 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:44.920 alien starship that enters earth solar system, and the fictional 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:47.800 ship was in turn named for the Hindu god Rama, 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:50.559 a major deity and central character in the Hindu epic. 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:55.000 The Ramayana. So already you can see what type of 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:58.520 excitement was attached to this by the scientists. Yeah, well, 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.200 I mean that's kind of ominous. So they're they're naming 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:03.840 it after a spaceship. Surely that doesn't mean they actually 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:06.600 thought it was a spaceship. Well that's that's the interesting 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:08.800 thing because when you start looking at some of the 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:14.120 characteristics of this object um, you can't help but begin 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:15.960 to make those connections. Like you can try and fight 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:19.000 it off, you can. You can imagine a scientist saying, down, 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:20.880 I don't think about as a spaceship. Don't don't get 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:22.960 your hopes up, don't get don't get all riled up 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:26.679 about this possibly being a spaceship. But when you start 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.800 looking at the bullet points, you can't help but think 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:32.360 this could be a spaceship, could be it. This is 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:34.880 what you know. I kept feeling is like, we're responsible 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:39.040 science communicators. It's not aliens, but it is kind of weird. Okay, 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:41.599 so we will we'll talk about that more later. We 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:47.559 should discuss what the characteristics of Omama are. So before 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:51.760 the discovery of Omama, astronomers knew about approximately seven and 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:55.640 fifty thousand asteroids and comets in our Solar system, and 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:57.840 as far as we can tell, every single one of 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:01.880 those objects originated here in the local Solar system. This 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.160 is the only object from anywhere else that we know 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:08.640 about that we've ever seen locally. So it provides us 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:12.560 with this tremendous opportunity to learn about the geology of 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.640 other star systems and what's out there in terms of 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:17.959 interstellar objects. So this is the first one we've ever 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:20.000 been able to see up close. Yeah, if it's not 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:24.240 a and it's probably not a message, a literal messenger 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.920 from another star system, it is figuratively a messager from 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.760 another star system. It is information from another star system, 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:35.680 bringing us a very brief opportunity to catch a glimpse 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:39.520 of what research potential is out there. So the scientists 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:42.600 who discovered it and analyzed it, they published their findings 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:45.720 in Nature in November. It was a paper called quote 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:50.400 A Brief Visit from a red and extremely elongated interstellar Asteroid, 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.640 and the research was led by Dr Karen Meach and 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:57.600 astronomer at the University of Hawaii. So let's discuss some 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:01.520 of the facts we've learned so far about Omumua. First, 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.840 the size, the object is very small. The authors of 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:07.520 the Nature paper determined it has an average radius of 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:10.920 just over a hundred meters. But so you're thinking radius 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:13.360 a hundred meters. Okay, maybe it's a two hundred meter 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:17.000 wide sphere, But the shape of the thing is not 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:19.560 a sphere. The shape is one of the weirdest things 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.560 about it. You might wonder, how do you figure out 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:25.440 the shape of something that's so small and so far 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:28.760 away and traveling through space at lightning speed, Like, shouldn't 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:32.320 it just be a blurry streak in the sky. That 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:34.080 is true, that is sort of what it is if 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:36.440 you see the direct images we've been able to capture 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:38.720 of its just kind of a streak on a screen. 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:41.560 But you can start to analyze what the shape of 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.120 this object is like by looking at something called light 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.440 curve charts. Now, a light curve model is a graph 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:50.720 that shows the intensity of light measured coming from an 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:54.800 object over time, and by analyzing patterns of reflected light 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:59.000 over time, scientists can start to figure out the shape 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:01.200 and the and the rotation sation of an object like this. 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:05.080 And what they discovered about this object about O Muamua 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:07.920 is that it appears to have a roughly ten to 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:13.000 one length to width and depth ratio. So imagine a 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:18.360 roughly cylindrical or tube shaped object ten times longer than 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:21.080 it is wide. According to a NASA write up, I 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:23.160 found it could be maybe about a quarter of a 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.280 mile long, So that's up to about four hundred meters 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:28.920 And if so, that would mean it's only about forty 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:34.000 meters wide. So we have a long, slender space cigar 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:38.160 redition color this this needle from another star. We should 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:40.640 point out that this is not a normal shape for 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:45.400 space objects. We don't know other asteroids are not like this. Yeah, 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:47.720 when you see the images that have been put out 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:51.040 there of of of this particular object, the first thing 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.560 that enters your mind is this is not something you 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:59.119 see in uh in, in typical illustrations of the cosmos. 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:00.840 I mean, it looks more like something you would see 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:04.720 in a science fiction film. Yeah, exactly. So. Analysis reveals 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:07.360 also in terms of its rotation, that it's what's known 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:11.480 as tumbling. This means it's rotating not around a principal axis, 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:15.360 but just sort of spinning crazily around an irregular axis 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:18.640 once every seven point three hours. Now, by looking at 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:21.080 the spectrum of light coming off of the thing. They've 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:23.760 been able to determine that this thing is going to 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:27.080 have a deep red coloration on its surface, and this 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.119 is similar to some objects in our Solar System that 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:34.679 have seen heavy bombardment by cosmic rays. Looking at its trajectory, 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:37.840 I guess we should ask where's it going. It's already 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:40.679 on its way back out of the Solar System, heading 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:44.280 out from the Sun about at an angle of twenty 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:47.520 degrees up off the orbital plane, so it's going away 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.400 from the Sun and then up at an angle off 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.719 of the orbital disk of all the planets, and this 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:57.080 puts it on a heading for the Pegasus constellation. It 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:59.920 passed the orbit of Mars at the beginning of November, 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.440 and it's going to pass the orbit of Jupiter by 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:06.720 mayen and then saturned by early twenty nineteen. So once 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:09.840 again it's booking. And this does present kind of a 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:12.560 problem because like, what if we wanted to send a 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:14.679 space mission out to meet it, you know, send a 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.440 send a probe to go land on this thing. That's 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.120 gonna be a real tough order. You'd have to put 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:23.840 together some kind of propulsion system capable of achieving speeds 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:26.879 unlike anything we've ever done before. You would need a 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:32.159 real crack team of of scientists and explorers to to 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:34.560 tackle this kind of problem. Yeah, it would be really 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:38.000 hard to catch this thing. Uh So, so it's heading 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:42.160 out towards Pegasus and it's going really fast. The other 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:45.479 side of that question is where did it come from. 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:48.720 Scientists currently think that it's been flying through interstellar space 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:52.120 for probably hundreds of millions of years before it entered 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:56.119 our solar system. Uh And on its approach trajectory, it 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.679 seems like it was coming from roughly the direction of 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.960 the large STARV Vega in the constellation Lira. But this 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:05.679 doesn't mean it came from the Vegas system because this 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.760 is one of the most disorienting things about space. So 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:11.520 you've got to remember that our view of the night 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:15.320 sky is moving, so from our perspective, something that came 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.720 from Vega, say a few hundred thousand years ago, if 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.200 if it would have been a hundred a few hundred 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.840 thousand years ago where Vega is now, Vega wasn't there 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:27.280 at the time. So wait, are you saying that the 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.119 age of the object would be in the hundred million 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:32.440 year range or the hundred thousand year range. Well, we 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:34.760 don't know for sure, but I've seen it speculated that 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:37.760 it it has been drifting. It has existed and been 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:41.080 drifting for maybe hundreds of millions of years, but that 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:43.960 about three hundred thousand years ago, say it would have 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.880 been about where Vega is, but about where Vega is now, 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:51.800 about not where Vega was then. So ultimately we don't 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:55.120 really know its origin yet. But I just saw there 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:59.120 is a paper out that's on on pre publication servers 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:01.720 right now, so it's on archive dot org, a paper 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:05.719 by Simon's vart at All that discusses three theories about 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.920 where this object came from. So one of the theories 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:12.719 is that it's actually a Kuiper Belt object, so something local. 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:16.119 But if you're you might be wondering, Okay, if it's local, 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:18.919 why would it have this hyperbolic trajectory, And the idea 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:20.920 there is that it would have had to have been 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:26.320 accelerated to a hyperbolic velocity by some kind of large object. 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:28.840 You got a gravity assist from like a dark hidden 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:32.360 planet or something somewhere out there that made this thing 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:35.399 go really fast, fast enough to escape the Solar System, 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:40.159 some sort of local space collision that that beamed it 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:43.080 in not necessarily collision like that. If there if there's 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:48.399 a dark, hidden massive plant somewhere, so it gets a 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:51.840 gravity assist from this unknown object somewhere out there in 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:55.360 the ort cloud or something like that, and through that 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:59.359 gravity assist it gets enough momentum, it gets enough velocity 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:02.320 that an escape the Solar System. They don't rate that 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:05.200 as very likely. It looks very much like it actually 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:08.520 did come from another star system. Uh. They look at 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:11.200 the theory that it originated from a nearby star called 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:14.879 t y C four seven four to Dash one zero 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:21.200 to seven dash one Yogurt system. They also rate this 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.760 is very unlikely. So the most likely option is this. 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:30.399 When a young star forms a protoplanetary disk, the matter 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:34.760 in this disc gradually coalesces into planets and other smaller objects, 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:37.120 and this is how our Solar System came to be 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:39.240 about four and a half to five billion years ago. 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:41.760 This is how other stars came to be as well. 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:45.560 But then things like other stars in a star cluster 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:48.959 can disturb these disks and cause matter to come out 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:53.480 of orbit, or gravitational resonances between young planets can fling 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:57.119 stuff out of orbit with great velocity. So mathematical models 0:21:57.119 --> 0:22:00.720 show that these disks frequently eject math is of rock 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:04.119 and ice out from the systems as they're forming and 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:07.520 send them flying into interstellar space, and that there are 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:12.480 probably lots of lonely little asteroids like this floating out 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:15.960 in the void between star systems, and the authors think 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:21.840 that's probably what this rock is, unless it's something else entirely. 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:25.400 And we'll get to those possibilities when we come back 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:30.800 from a break. All right, we're back and we're going 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:34.199 to discuss another possibility here. And I and I and 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:37.160 I know everyone already can guess what it is. Now. 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:40.240 Of course, we know by this point if anybody discovers 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:43.919 any kind of anomalous phenomenon whatsoever in space, the Daily 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:46.679 Mail is going to run an article saying it's aliens. 0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:50.520 It's seriously, it's aliens. Also check out these Royal family 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:54.480