by An object that seems to be beyond our solar system was discovered in the direction of the sun, which, if it was confirmed, would be the third visitor of the stars that was ever discovered, the European space agency announced on Wednesday.
The object, which is currently referred to as A11PL3Z, is not a threat to Earth, said Richard Moissl, head of the ESA planetary defense manager, AFP.
“It will fly deep through the solar system and come directly into the orbit of Mars,” but do not meet our neighboring planet, he said.
Excited astronomers still refine their calculations, but the object seems to zoom more than 60 kilometers per second.
This would mean that in contrast to comets and asteroids, all of which come within the solar system, it is not bound to soloism.
His trajectory also means that it does not creep up our star, but from interstellar space and flies there again, “said Moissl.
“We are currently not 100 percent safe, but anything else would be a surprise,” he added.
The official confirmation is expected to come from the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union, which has previously recorded more than 100 observations of the property.
The Atlas survey in Hawaii, financed by NASA, discovered the property for the first time on Tuesday. The US astronomer David Rankin wrote Bluesky on the social media platform.
Professional and amateur astronomers all over the world searched through in previous telescopic data and pursued their trajectory at least June 14th.
The property is currently estimated at around 10 to 20 kilometers wide, said Moissl. However, the object could be smaller if it consists of ice, which reflects more light.
“It will be brighter and closer to the sun until the end of October and then until the end of October until next year,” said Moissl.
– Our third visitor –
It would be the third time that humanity discovered some of the stars.
The first, Oumuamua, was discovered in 2017. It was so strange that at least one prominent scientist was convinced that it was a foreign ship – although this has been rejected by further research since then.
Our second interstellar visitor, 2i/Borisov, was discovered in 2019.
Mark Norris, an astronomer at the British University of Central Lancashire, said AFP said that the new object “moves considerably faster than the other two extra solar objects that we discovered before”.
The property is currently around the distance from Jupiter outside the earth, said Norris.
He complained that he could not observe the property on his telescope on Wednesday evening, since it is currently only visible in the southern hemisphere.
Norris pointed out that the estimation of the modeling could give so many 10,000 interstellar objects that the solar system went through at a certain point in time, although most were smaller than the newly discovered object.
If this is true, this indicates that the new online -vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile could soon find these weak interstellar visitors every month, said Norris.
Moissl said it was not possible to send a mission to space to intercept the new object.
Nevertheless, these visitors offer scientists a rare opportunity to study something outside of our solar system.
For example, if we found for the forerunners of life like amino acids on such an object, it would “give us much more trust in the living conditions in other star systems,” said Norris.
DL/GV/GIV
