SpaceX--Spacecraft, rockets, and Mars

[maarsen]

Is anyone else following the story of the interstellar asteroid that passed us by recently? Just today I see that the asteroid is about 10 times longer than it is wide. No other known asteroid has such a shape.  

[jurble]

It's a dead spaceship.  Like, the whole Occam's Razor with it being an asteroid only works if you assume a derelict spaceship is less likely than an almost impossible-to-form natural spacerock.    The real shame is that we have no stand-by assets for a situation like this.  There's a non-zero chance derelict spaceship is hurtling through our solar system and there's nothing we can do about it.   God damn, who knows what sort of tech is in there (if it is a spaceship, which it is).

[Which Tyler]

Derelict? or a hibernating Rama?

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

13 hours ago, Ajûrbkli said:

It's a dead spaceship.  Like, the whole Occam's Razor with it being an asteroid only works if you assume a derelict spaceship is less likely than an almost impossible-to-form natural spacerock.    The real shame is that we have no stand-by assets for a situation like this.  There's a non-zero chance derelict spaceship is hurtling through our solar system and there's nothing we can do about it.   God damn, who knows what sort of tech is in there (if it is a spaceship, which it is).

I agree that it is sad a rendezvous is not possible.  That said, how difficult would such a rendezvous be even if we had stand by assets that could be sent toward the bogey?

[maarsen]

2 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I agree that it is sad a rendezvous is not possible.  That said, how difficult would such a rendezvous be even if we had stand by assets that could be sent toward the bogey?

The velocity that this object has and its angle to the plane of the ecliptic makes any attempt to aproach it very difficult even if we were prepared. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

2 minutes ago, maarsen said:

The velocity that this object has and its angle to the plane of the ecliptic makes any attempt to aproach it very difficult even if we were prepared. 

That's what I suspected.  

[A wilding]

You could do a flyby though. (As in that probe early in Rendezvous With Rama.)

It is just a rendezvous that would be really difficult,

 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

24 minutes ago, A wilding said:

You could do a flyby though. (As in that probe early in Rendezvous With Rama.)

It is just a rendezvous that would be really difficult,

 

If it's coming from off the plane of the ecliptic isn't a flyby tough too?

[SpaceChampion]

The shape is only inferred from the change in light.  The reasoning could be wrong and it is not shaped as it seems now.
 

A flyby could be done if we have ships/craft in the vicinity already.  Sometimes we luck out with a space telescope -- there are a few in solar orbit inwards from Earth, or off the ecliptic.

[A wilding]

2 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

If it's coming from off the plane of the ecliptic isn't a flyby tough too?

You just have to arrange for your probe to be there at the time and place it goes through the ecliptic plane, Tricky maths, but simple in principle.

[maarsen]

2 hours ago, A wilding said:

You just have to arrange for your probe to be there at the time and place it goes through the ecliptic plane, Tricky maths, but simple in principle.

Actually it passed through twice. Once coming and once going. It managed to use the sun to increase its velocity as it leaves the solar system. If I remember correctly, Rama did the same thing, except it slowed down to gather energy from the sun. I am positive every astronomer thinks that it seems just like Rama, but nobody wants to be the first to come out and say it.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

57 minutes ago, maarsen said:

Actually it passed through twice. Once coming and once going. It managed to use the sun to increase its velocity as it leaves the solar system. If I remember correctly, Rama did the same thing, except it slowed down to gather energy from the sun. I am positive every astronomer thinks that it seems just like Rama, but nobody wants to be the first to come out and say it.

Arthur C. Clark... prophet.  Let’s just hope he was wrong about Childhood’s End.

[maarsen]

10 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Arthur C. Clark... prophet.  Let’s just hope he was wrong about Childhood’s End.

Arthur Clarke was also the inventor of communications satellites. I distinctly remember a story he wrote about the Soviets using such satellites to beam continuous video streams of porn into the US. The point was to distract the citizens and make them less aware of the outside world. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

1 hour ago, maarsen said:

Arthur Clarke was also the inventor of communications satellites. I distinctly remember a story he wrote about the Soviets using such satellites to beam continuous video streams of porn into the US. The point was to distract the citizens and make them less aware of the outside world. 

That’s pretty funny.

Given that the bogey is coming from off angle to the plane of the ecliptic, is it possible that we have not just an interstellar object but an intergalactic object passing through our solar system?

[The Warlock of Qarth]

36 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

That’s pretty funny.

Given that the bogey is coming from off angle to the plane of the ecliptic, is it possible that we have not just an interstellar object but an intergalactic object passing through our solar system?

Hmmm, I suspect it's velocity is too low for that. The ecliptic is also highly inclined to the galactic plane, so the high angle compared to the ecliptic wouldn't be unexpected for an interstellar object.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

1 hour ago, Warlock of Quarth said:

Hmmm, I suspect it's velocity is too low for that. The ecliptic is also highly inclined to the galactic plane, so the high angle compared to the ecliptic wouldn't be unexpected for an interstellar object.

Hmmm... I thought the ecliptic was in line with the galactic plane.  Interesting, something to read on.  Thanks.

 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

That’s pretty funny.

Given that the bogey is coming from off angle to the plane of the ecliptic, is it possible that we have not just an interstellar object but an intergalactic object passing through our solar system?

I'd say it's doubtful that we just witnessed an intergalactic object, but the point of origin of this fascinating visitor seems to be an interesting question.

According to this CNN article, the object came from the direction of the Lyra constellation, but that was almost definitely not it's point of origin.

'Oumuamua came from the direction of Vega, a bright star in the Lyra constellation. But even at 85,700 miles per hour, it took so long to reach our solar system that Vega wasn't in the same position 300,000 years ago.

The astronomers believe that instead, the object could have been traveling through our home galaxy, the Milky Way, for hundreds of millions of years, without being attached to any star system, before reaching us.

[Ded As Ned]

2 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Hmmm... I thought the ecliptic was in line with the galactic plane.  Interesting, something to read on.  Thanks.

 

Here's a decent visual.

 

[Ghjhero]

On 11/21/2017 at 6:59 PM, maarsen said:

Actually it passed through twice. Once coming and once going. It managed to use the sun to increase its velocity as it leaves the solar system. If I remember correctly, Rama did the same thing, except it slowed down to gather energy from the sun. I am positive every astronomer thinks that it seems just like Rama, but nobody wants to be the first to come out and say it.

This is fascinating. Where are you reading these tales about it’s behavior? Do you have any links?

As someone who hasn’t read Rama, how is it similar? How did it use the sun to, as you’re saying, pass through the ecliptic twice? Correct me if I’m wrong, but to pass through the ecliptic twice wouldn’t it have had to (intentionally?) change direction? 

[maarsen]

7 hours ago, Ghjhero said:

This is fascinating. Where are you reading these tales about it’s behavior? Do you have any links?

As someone who hasn’t read Rama, how is it similar? How did it use the sun to, as you’re saying, pass through the ecliptic twice? Correct me if I’m wrong, but to pass through the ecliptic twice wouldn’t it have had to (intentionally?) change direction? 

My sources are the members of RASC. The Royal Astronomical  Society of Canada. I am a member. 

As to passing through the ecliptic twice, the orbit is a hyperbola  and the gravity of the sun as it passes close by flings it back out up throught the ecliptic again. There is a lot of info on the web. Just search for interstellar asteroid.