Oumuamua -The Mysterious Rock.

Comet C/2017 U1 later named Oumuamua meaning ' Scout' in Hawaiian is the first confirmed Interstellar Comet, which has gained a bit of popularity in the scientific community. Due to the small fraction of time that humans have been on earth, I would hesitate to say that this is the 1st "visitor" to our solar system. Rather, it would be the 1st to be viewed by humans. What makes this comet so mysterious? Let's see

One of the main reasons I would be pointing at the less amount of data we have on this comet has led to hundreds of speculations and caused a debate among researchers.

The comet was 1st spotted by Pan-STARRS{The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System} located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, US. But why are we still talking about it?

The only reason is its trajectory. Oumuamua followed a distinct but never proved path which according to astronomers, normal planetary objects don't follow. Oumuamua was observed to be accelerating, which you should know space floating objects have a constant velocity when no external force is applied. Hubble Telescope monitored its path and noted that it closed past earth at nearly about 15 million km.

Origin

Recent studies and research of data found that Oumuamua originated from a Pluto-like planet outside the solar system. Astronomers also found that it reflected most of the red light which could give some clue about its composition.

Alien Properties

Here alien means unknown

• Shape- Its shape is very much like a sci-fi space ship and to be particular -long and thin—cigar-shaped.

• The reflectivity of the surface of Oumuamua is similar to D-type comets. But has different reflection light {red} .

• Trajectory-It swing past our solar system like it was here to scout or refuel from our star.

• Travelled for thousands of light-years, which means it could have precious samples from the origin of its solar system.

There are many more speculations and topics which makes this Comet the special one. But for today's post, that's all I have.

Credits: NASA, ESA and J. DePasquale (STScI)