We know that in our solar system, apart from planets and satellites, many types of objects exist such as asteroids, comets, and meteorites, etc. But in 2017, for the first time, we detected an object that did not even belong to our solar system. Actually, this object came from another solar system, its speed was so fast that it easily got out of the influence of the gravity of the sun and currently, it is on the path that will take it out of our solar system. This object was previously named C/2017 U1 PANSTARRS, later changed to Oumuamua, which is a Hawaiian word meaning either 'scout' or 'messenger sent from the distant past to reach out to us'.
On October 19, 2017, astronomers in Hawaii detected a strange object in our solar system using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakalā Observatory. When it was first observed, it was about 33 million km from Earth. This object seemed to travel very fast — up to 196,000 miles per hour, which was so fast that even the gravitational force of the Sun was not able to affect it. The telescopes only noticed this as a small point of light, moving quickly between the fixed stars. Initially, everyone thought that maybe it is an asteroid or comet in which there was nothing new, but all the asteroids or comets in our solar system always revolve around the sun. But when astronomers looked at the trajectory of this object, it found that its trajectory was not at all like an asteroid or comet. Actually, looking at its trajectory, it seemed as if it did not belong to our solar system and came from the interstellar space. But the path it was heading, it was clear that once again it would leave our solar system, and will ready to join interstellar space again. If you do not know about an interstellar object, let us tell you that it is a type of astronomical object that is located in interstellar space and is not bound to gravity from a star. In size, Oumuamua is estimated to be between 100 and 1,000 meters long, and with its width and thickness both estimated to range between 35 and 167 meters. Oumuamua is said to have tumbling motion, rather than smoothly rotating.
As soon as it was confirmed as an interstellar object, it began to be seen as an alien spacecraft, all because of the shape of this object, a strange shape resembling an elongated cigar. Such a shape is nowhere to be found in our solar system and the second biggest reason for considering it as an alien ship was the increase in its speed while moving away from the Sun. As this object is moving away from us, its speed is increasing continuously, but no one has an accurate explanation of why and how its speed is increasing. The orbital eccentricity of Oumuamua is 1.20 which was the highest eccentricity observed by us, until 2I/Borisov was discovered in August 2019. 2I/Borisov was also an interstellar object like Oumuamua and its Eccentricity was 3.36. An eccentricity greater than 1.0 means that an object exceeds the Sun's escape velocity, is not bound to the Solar System, and may escape to interstellar space. An eccentricity slightly above 1.0 can be achieved when encountering with planets, and this has happened before with the previous record holder, C/1980 E1. But Oumuamua's eccentricity is so high that it could not have been achieved by an encounter with a planet. According to calculations, there is no such planet in our solar system and also can never exist, if any should exist, could not account for Oumuamua's trajectory nor boost its speed to the observed value. Looking at all these reasons, the conclusion was drawn that it can only be of interstellar origin, but now the question arises as to where it came from.
This mysterious object Oumuamua is currently leaving our solar system and moving towards the Pegasus constellation, but if we look back at its trajectory, then we see that it has come from roughly the direction of Vega in the constellation Lyra. It is believed that it would have taken 600,000 years to reach our Solar System from Vega, but whether 600,000 years ago, Vega was in the same place, because everything is moving in this universe, so its origin cannot be Vega. We do not even know how long this object has been traveling among the stars, maybe billions of years, or even more. Oumuamua is a young Interstellar object which is revealed by its surface color. In the magnetic field of any star, it keeps the 'objects' safe from the interstellar dust and cosmic rays, but as soon as the object comes out of the 'magnetic field' of that star, the cosmic rays, and interstellar dust start to affect that object. If it stays in the interstellar space for a long time, then its surface color will be slightly different as affecting by cosmic dust, but this is not the case for Oumuamua as the color of Oumuamua is absolutely natural which suggests that this object has been affected only by cosmic rays, that too, for some 100 million years only, without the faintest hint of dust around it.
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