12/9/2023 0 Comments Ufo hawaii telescope 2017![]() ![]() 'Oumuamua appeared brighter when we saw its broader side. The measurements of 'Oumuamua's shape and dimensions were based on its "light curve," a graph that tracks how the object's brightness changed over time as it tumbled through space. Astronomers have seen similarly shaped objects in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune - specifically, a minor planet called Arrokoth, which NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past on New Year's Day 2019. However, astronomers later revised these dimensions to approximately 6:6:1, which instead describes a pancake shape. Initial measurements suggested that the object was shaped like a long cylinder with a size ratio of 10:1, meaning it was 10 times as long as it was wide. A Hawaiian name was chosen because the telescope that discovered it - PanSTARRS-1 - is based in Hawaii. Its name is the Hawaiian word for "a messenger from afar arriving first" - very fitting for the first interstellar object to be discovered in our solar system. As the first interstellar visitor to have been identified, 'Oumuamua gives us insight into what other extrasolar planetary systems might be like. Interstellar objects come from other planetary systems and are thrown into interstellar space either by giant collisions that smash protoplanets apart or by the gravitational tides of marauding gas giant planets. There is no evidence that 'Oumuamua was a spaceship. The leading theories involve the sublimation of either nitrogen or hydrogen ice. Small and unusually shaped, it didn't look like a comet, yet it moved as though it were outgassing. However, 'Oumuamua wasn't what astronomers were expecting. Interstellar objects were predicted to exist long before 'Oumuamua was discovered. 'Oumuamua FAQs What is the mystery of 'Oumuamua?
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