October 30th, 2017 at 12:17 AM
a few days ago nasa discovered asteroid A/2017 U1, according to the data collected so far it's trajectory, velocity, and other factors put it's origin firmly outside our own star system, it is currently on it's way out.
Below is an animated gif depicting the flyby.
at first nasa thought it was a comet given the extreme apoapsis of the object but closer inspection revealed no coma or any outgasing proving this to be a cold dry rock which was likely thrown out of another star system at some point and our sun just happened to come along it's millennia long path through the galaxy.
this is the first time in recorded history that an extrasolar object has been observed traversing our star system making this a major event.
so what do you guys think?
Below is an animated gif depicting the flyby.
at first nasa thought it was a comet given the extreme apoapsis of the object but closer inspection revealed no coma or any outgasing proving this to be a cold dry rock which was likely thrown out of another star system at some point and our sun just happened to come along it's millennia long path through the galaxy.
this is the first time in recorded history that an extrasolar object has been observed traversing our star system making this a major event.
so what do you guys think?