The Feasibility and Benefits of In Situ Exploration of ‘Oumuamua-like Objects

Seligman, Darryl Z.; Laughlin, Gregory

doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aabd37

Cited by 86 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Since it is too late to image 'Oumuamua with existing telescopes or chase it with chemical propulsion rockets (Seligman & Laughlin 2018, but see Hein et al 2017, its likely origin and mechanical properties could only be deciphered by searching for other objects of its type in the future. In addition to the vast unbound population, thousands of interstellar 'Oumuamua-like space-debris are expected to be trapped at any given time in the Solar System through gravitational interaction with Jupiter and the Sun (Lingam & Loeb 2 A list of books and papers on lightsails is provided in http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/research/3.…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Could Solar Radiation Pressure Explain ‘Oumuamua’s Peculiar Acceleration?

Bialy

Loeb

2018

ApJL

148

113

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Oumuamua (1I/2017 U1) is the first object of interstellar origin observed in the Solar System. Recently, Micheli et al. (2018) reported that 'Oumuamua showed deviations from a Keplerian orbit at a high statistical significance. The observed trajectory is best explained by an excess radial acceleration ∆a ∝ r −2 , where r is the distance of 'Oumuamua from the Sun. Such an acceleration is naturally expected for comets, driven by the evaporating material. However, recent observational and theoretical studies imply that 'Oumuamua is not an active comet. We explore the possibility that the excess acceleration results from Solar radiation pressure. The required mass-to-area ratio is (m/A) ≈ 0.1 g cm −2 . For a thin sheet this requires a thickness of ≈ 0.3 − 0.9 mm. We find that although extremely thin, such an object would survive an interstellar travel over Galactic distances of ∼ 5 kpc, withstanding collisions with gas and dust-grains as well as stresses from rotation and tidal forces. We discuss the possible origins of such an object. Our general results apply to any light probes designed for interstellar travel. Subject headings: ISM: individual objects (1I/2017 U1) -minor planets, asteroids: individual (1I/2017 U1) -General: extraterrestrial intelligence -Minor planets, asteroids: general

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Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Could Solar Radiation Pressure Explain ‘Oumuamua’s Peculiar Acceleration?

Bialy

Loeb

2018

ApJL

148

113

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“…There is strong scientific motivation for investigating interstellar objects, including the potential to gain a deeper understanding of planetary system formation (Seligman & Laughlin 2018). Follow-up observations can help facilitate missions to probe objects of interstellar origin in this orbital parameter space.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying Interstellar Objects Trapped in the Solar System through Their Orbital Parameters

Siraj

Loeb

2019

ApJL

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The first interstellar object, 'Oumuamua, was discovered in the Solar System by Pan-STARRS in 2017, allowing for a calibration of the abundance of interstellar objects of its size and an estimation of the subset of objects trapped by the Jupiter-Sun system. Photographing or visiting these trapped objects would allow for learning about the conditions in other planetary systems, saving the need to send interstellar probes. Here, we explore the orbital properties of captured interstellar objects in the Solar System using dynamical simulations of the Jupiter-Sun system and initial conditions drawn from the distribution of relative velocities of stars in the Solar neighborhood. We compare the resulting distributions of orbital elements to those of the most similar population of known asteroids, namely Centaurs, to search for a parameter space in which interstellar objects should dominate and therefore be identifiable solely by their orbits. We find that there should be thousands of 'Oumuamua-size interstellar objects identifiable by Centaur-like orbits at high inclinations, assuming a number density of 'Oumuamua-size interstellar objects of ∼ 10 15 pc −3 . We note eight known objects that may be of interstellar origin. Finally, we estimate that LSST will be able to detect several hundreds of these objects.

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“…CO, another cometary volatile commonly found on dynamically new comets in solar system that has an onset distance r H = 120 au, is not as compatible. However, it has been suggested for the case of 'Oumuamua that the volatiles may be buried beneath the surface and are only activated when the comet is much closer to the Sun, due to the time lag for the heat wave to penetrate to the depth of the ice (Fitzsimmons et al 2018;Seligman & Laughlin 2018). Therefore, it is too early to exclude CO as the main driver of 2I's activity.…”

Section: Driver Of the Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-discovery Activity of New Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov beyond 5 au

Kelley

Bolin

et al. 2020

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Comet 2I/Borisov, the first unambiguous interstellar comet ever found, was discovered in August 2019 at ∼ 3 au from the Sun on its inbound leg. No pre-discovery detection beyond 3 au has yet been reported, mostly due to the comet's proximity to the Sun as seen from the Earth. Here we present a search for pre-discovery detections of comet Borisov using images taken by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS), Pan-STARRS and Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), with a further comprehensive follow-up campaign being presented in Bolin et al. (2019). We identified comet Borisov in ZTF images taken in May 2019 and use these data to update its orbit. This allowed us to identify the comet in images acquired as far back as December 2018, when it was 7.8 au from the Sun. The comet was not detected in November 2018 when it was 8.6 au from the Sun, possibly implying an onset of activity around this time. This suggests that the activity of the comet is either driven by a more volatile species other than H 2 O, such as CO or CO 2 , or by exothermic crystallization of amorphous ice. We derive the radius of the nucleus to be < 7 km using the non-detection in November 2018, and estimate an area of ∼ 0.5-10 km 2 has been active between December 2018 and September 2019, though this number is model-dependent and is highly uncertain. The behavior of comet Borisov during its inbound leg is observationally consistent with dynamically new comets observed in our solar system, suggesting some similarities between the two.

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The Feasibility and Benefits of In Situ Exploration of ‘Oumuamua-like Objects

Cited by 86 publications

References 67 publications

Could Solar Radiation Pressure Explain ‘Oumuamua’s Peculiar Acceleration?

Could Solar Radiation Pressure Explain ‘Oumuamua’s Peculiar Acceleration?

Identifying Interstellar Objects Trapped in the Solar System through Their Orbital Parameters

Pre-discovery Activity of New Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov beyond 5 au

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