Travelers In The Night

383E-419-ET's Cigar


Listen Later

In 2012 as it crossed the orbit of Neptune heading towards the Sun a small space rock was 250 times fainter than can be detected by the Hubble Space Telescope. Five years later, after it had rounded the Sun, it became visible in asteroid hunter's telescopes for about 16 days, as it streaked across our planet's orbit at 37 miles per second, as it continued to move away from the Sun. During that brief period of time it was discovered by the PanSTARRS group in Hawaii, tracked by telescopes around the world, and given the name Oumuamua (“Oh-moo-ah-moo-ah”). Turns out that previous to the discovery observations, sightings too sparse to report, were obtained by my team using the Catalina Sky Survey's Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona. In 2024 this unusual space rock will cross Pluto's average distance from the Sun traveling on a path which will take it into deep interstellar space. Since we don't know how Oumuamua could obtained it's current trajectory from processes in our solar system, it is safe to presume that it originated in truly deep space. The mystery of Oumuamua deepened when astronomers measured it's brightness to change regularly by nearly 10 times over a 7.3 hour period of time. If these brightness variations are due to it's shape, and thus the amount of sun light reflected as it rotates, Oumuamua looks like a cigar. Even though Elon Musk's SpaceX Mars rocket could catch Oumuamua, it is more cost effective is to simply wait to discover another one of the several interstellar asteroids which pass by us each year.
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Travelers In The NightBy Albert D. Grauer

  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9

4.9

24 ratings


More shows like Travelers In The Night

View all
Big Picture Science by Big Picture Science

Big Picture Science

945 Listeners

The 365 Days of Astronomy by 365DaysOfAstronomy.org

The 365 Days of Astronomy

350 Listeners

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science by The Planetary Society

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

1,356 Listeners

SpaceTime with Stuart Gary by Stuart Gary

SpaceTime with Stuart Gary

321 Listeners

Ask a Spaceman! by Paul M. Sutter

Ask a Spaceman!

838 Listeners

AWESOME ASTRONOMY by Paul & Dr Jeni

AWESOME ASTRONOMY

119 Listeners

Astronomy Cast by Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela Gay

Astronomy Cast

2,882 Listeners

Universe Today Podcast by Fraser Cain

Universe Today Podcast

566 Listeners

Space Nuts: Astronomy Insights & Cosmic Discoveries by Professor Fred Watson and Andrew Dunkley

Space Nuts: Astronomy Insights & Cosmic Discoveries

231 Listeners

StarDate by Billy Henry

StarDate

252 Listeners

EVSN: Escape Velocity Space News by Dr. Pamela Gay, Erik Madaus, Ally Pelphrey

EVSN: Escape Velocity Space News

91 Listeners

The Supermassive Podcast by The Royal Astronomical Society

The Supermassive Podcast

323 Listeners

Astronomy Daily: Space News Updates by bitesz.com

Astronomy Daily: Space News Updates

18 Listeners

The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu by theliuniverse

The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu

78 Listeners

Astrum Space by Astrum

Astrum Space

151 Listeners