Don’t worry. In about 300 years Voyager 1 will cross the closest of the predicted inner edges of the Oort Cloud and maybe it can send back some images 🤓 Seriously though, while we only have circumstantial evidence (primarily cometary trajectories), something like the proposed Oort Cloud is the most reasonable hypothesis.
@@cguy96 didn't voyager 1 get shot out after saturn or jupiter and got lost and then voyager 2 made it past pluto. That's when we saw the cute little heart and now is officially in "interstellar space"?
@@curbotize Boy, I hope not as I am looking at a continuously updating Voyager 1 and 2 status! It was lost and then reestablished. But it’s a moot point as they will both be losing all power to their instruments in the next couple of years, and while they still might be able to send some limited data back, they will be out of touch with the Deep Space Network by about 2035-6.
@@CreationAreUs yeah they invent crazy inter galactic phenomena passing close to our world to add complexity to the lie. Wonder why they can’t take a picture is something 1km long almost half way between us and the sun?!? Flat earth let cant take a picture of the worlds tallest building from 100 miles away
The mention of the "theoretical" Oort Cloud got me thinking. I've been keeping a project called Breakthrough: Starshot in the back of my mind. The basic concept is to put together a very small spacecraft, and attach it to a very large reflective sail. This could be propelled by lasers or even by the Sun. The propulsive force here would not be countered by atmosphere, so over time, could reach a percentage of the speed of light. The goal would be to send this to Alpha Centauri. My idea would be to construct a primitive prototype of this project, which while not attaining such speed as to make it to Alpha Centauri in 20 years, could get going fast enough to reach the Oort Cloud in a much shorter time than it took New Horizons to reach Pluto. The craft itself should probably be large enough to house communications as well as photographic and other analytical equipment. The balance of weight vs. travel time would have to be worked out. But with Falcon 9 flights being as cheap as they are, this project could be put underway without breaking as much of a bank as prior missions, and yet accomplish important milestones such as a faster method of reaching far distances and also, hopefully, encountering Oort Cloud objects.
Ever since I saw the Geographics video about 'Oumuamua, I've been interested in learning more about it and other interstellar objects. Thank you for the video!
Actually Dave the observations regarding the object being or not being an artificial spacecraft are not conclusive. We don't have enough data to determine the composition of the object due to the speed it was traveling the small size of said object. There are research papers saying one thing or the other but sadly we might never truly know the composition of said cigar shape object.
The most interesting thing was the contrast between how extraordinary Oumuamua was, so much so it even had to be ruled out that it was a spaceship, and how mundane Borisov was.
Omuamua isn't as special as it may seem. It's shape is a guess, based on the assumption that it's surface has a consistent brightness. It's unusual 'acceleration' was merely the fact that it didn't slow down quite as much as expected on it's way out from the sun ... a 0.1% difference that only cut an hour of it's travel time the distance of Jupiter's orbit. And it wasn't discovered until 40 days after it went around the sun, so we can't really be sure of what it was like before it encountered the sun, or that it didn't off-gas on it's closest approach, losing mass (affecting it's acceleration). But - it's very special to the scientist who's hyping the idea of it being a spaceship ... to sell his book.
@@KenLord Come on, scientists don't "guess", they publish estimates with error bars. This was a mag 14 obj so those bars are wide. Even so, there were observations by the Hershall telescope which concluded that it was a featureless uniform red. Which suggests against a varying albedo. I understand the debate is between pancake and cigar with the former more likely. I know of no paper that contends it has a standard shape. So extraordinary, at least morphologically. But yes, the solar wind acceleration was fascinating.
@@davidmurphy563 you say "scientists don't guess" ... on a topic involving a scientist going totally fringe without conclusive evidence, declaring that it's a spaceship, to sell his book. Well done.
@@KenLord What's published in books isn't science, anyone can speculate to their heart's content in popular media where they are entitled to earn royalties on their work. It's what's in the peer reviewed literature that makes up the body of scientific understanding. Guesswork has no place in respected master list journals. Speculation, on the other hand, is perfectly fine. The difference is you can't claim certainty that isn't supported by evidence. Even then, it's all the literature considered as a whole that makes scientific understanding. There are always outliers in the literature, and a good job too, once in a blue moon we have such papers to thank for a paradigm shift as they overturn accepted fact. Mostly such papers fall into obscurity and aren't referenced. The scientific consensus is that the evidence for Oumuamua being of intelligent origin is too scant to warrant serious consideration. The only thing that can change that is data.
The shape of ‘Oumuamua is also hypothetical. The best we could see is a point of light, but the shape was inferred from periodic changes in brightness.
A small, but interesting thought we will never have the answer to. We named the object Oumuamua. Given the amount of time it's been traveling, theoretically it might not be the only name it's receieved. Some other civilization could have seen it, and named it's as it slipped through their own system. Perhaps naming it ",》♡◇~" or "Bob."
I think Anton was talking about this comet on his channel. Didn't they figure out it was more of a donut shape rather than that cigar type shape. Great video Proffesor Dave. Space is flippin cool. 😎👍⭐
Detection is a big deal, as they are extremely difficult to spot until they are close to the Sun. They don't emit any light and the sunlight intensity diminishes quickly (inverse-square law, both ways to the asteroid and after it bounces back to the Earth). The speed is another factor because such objects are very FAST! We would have to have a probe on standby ready to be deployed at any time with Falcon Heavy or some other big rocket. Basically, it has to be as capable as the Parker space probe or 3x the velocity of New Horizons and intercept the objective with no gravity assist, because there is no time for it.
As a planetary scientist I know of no astronomical body with a ten to one aspect ratio. Nothing in even remotely close. It most likely consists of a metal shard from a shattered core or the unspoken alternative.
Great explanation! While I think 'Oumuamua is more than likely a natural object vs. an alien artificat, Jackson and Desch published a pair of papers where they model 'Oumuamua as an ice fragment from an exo-Pluto. So far, it's the most convincing explanation I've come across. Anyway, great video, and cheers!
The thought of landing on an exo-comet is so cool. Biggest problem I see is matching the velocity. It isn’t just the ~90 km/s, which we HAVE reached with the Parker Solar Probe, but the hyperbolic trajectory. But, it would be so cool.
I think it requires early discovery and some luck. Like, if such an object is heading to the sun for a slingshot, it might be possible to lauch a spacecraft has enoough time to accelerate and gain velocity in the same direction.
I think we would need to have some probes in stock so that we can send at least one of them as soon as we spot the interstellar object. However, all the probes that we have sent so far are "task-calibrated", they are designed with their future mission in mind from the very beginning. I don't think our spacecraft technology is advanced enough (yet) to build a versatile probe that could broadly optimize its workings according to what kind of environment it meets at the spot.
@@giderahwolf we tried designing a versatile, “multi-usage” platform before. It was called the space shuttle and it basically did everything fair at best and much more expensively than it needed to be.
@@cguy96 I understand. That's why I think it takes more advanced technology than what we have today to have 'star trek craft' at hand without ruining the economy. :-)
Me: Wow, an exo-comet. How insanely unlikely is it that an object arrives from another solar system during the tiny (relatively) amount of time we've had the ability to track it. Dave: ...and we already found another... Me: Love Science!
Last few years has really been amazing. We go from finding a comet or 2 and maybe some other exoplanet, to finding hundreds of new objects in the sky. Space knowledge is really starting to expand. Pun intended 😉😎
It’s called observation bias. We didn’t see any microbes before inventing the microscope, did we? Same with small celestial objects. Very possible (indeed probable) that there’s a continual flux of them so as soon as we have equipment advanced enough to detect them we do. It’s not “insanely unlikely” it’s normal. Same with the detection of gravitational waves. If waves get constantly produced in the universe it’s not a matter of chance detecting one as soon as the detector gets switched on.
@Professor Dave Explains, maybe make a discord server as you are a bit more than just an educational channel, and it would be nice to have a place for us fans to hang out. PS. It is 100% free to create a server
I was very confused by the years with decimal following because I didn't notice its presence until 2019 and the way it was counted made it seem like this object was moving 10x the speed of the other planets
Such cool stuff! I wonder what comet 2I/Borisov has in store for us? Fun facts: Borisov is traveling at about 110,000 miles per hour and has a much higher carbon monoxide concentration that other solar origin comets. Scientists believe this interstellar comet formed around a Red Dwarf star, which may explain its high carbon monoxide content. Ain't science just completely, awesomely cool?!
Because it isn't. There are some early estimates available regarding the number of such objects in interstellar space, and there have to be trillions of them in the galaxy. Another issue is detecting them. They are extremely hard to spot unless they are very close to the Sun.
I just watch astronomy to relieve the monotony of life, if aleins are real and can communicate and cooperate with us i will be extremely happy and freak out.
I hope we find proof of life beyond earth while I’m here. I don’t care if it’s sentient or single celled. I think there’s a good chance we will, but who knows,
Aliens are real. Probably we won't find any evidence in the coming few centuries. So tell your grandkids to tell their grandkids to be prepared to freak out.
Let us not forget the meaning of scientific theory when we say theoretical. But Dave said hypothetical Oort Cloud which I would love to hear his take on
Because it is made up of relatively small objects and they do not emit their own light, the oort cloud is extremely hard to observe. So it is still hypothetical and voyager will get there in a few hundred years. But most evidence points to it's existence, we just have to prove it.
How do we determine what an Alien ship is or isn't, if we don't know what 'Alien' itself actually is, it could've contained microscopic lifeforms or mineral lifeforms or lifeforms that we have no concept of thus far (and now never will).. I guess that would be a cocoon or a pod? But is that any different to a generation ship, allbeit the materials they're made from they would both have life contained within a vessel thats travelling somewhere. How do we know that wasn't a micrscopic intelligent lifeform that had mastered interstellar travel in a rock? they we're clever enough to steer clear of Earth :) Will humankind in the distant future have regrets of missing that rock ? Or was it a good thing we missed the rock,had it contained a harmfull bacteria or our Kryptonite. Maybe in another alternate universe we captured the rock
I was wondering if some flerf would show up on here and claim fake or CGI. But Proffesor Dave tore them a new one more than a few times now. Everything possible has been done already. Like the previous comment. There's only so much you can explain to a moron.
Are you familiar with Cool Hard Logic? He has a substantial series debunking flat earth. I have watched it a few times because besides being funny it’s packed with a lot of practical science that is fun to learn. Beware it’s also packed with insults to flat earthers so it’s not exactly child friendly.
How old those exocomets must be? I mean, seing they are slow as balls some may've started on their interstellar journey before solar system was even a thing.
You forgot to mention that there's a big difference between asteroids and comets comets have more water than a regular asteroid so when they get close to a sun it creates a comet tail, it's just Ice melting
Here’s hoping NASA or perhaps one or more of the other space agencies is planning a landing. We could find as of yet unknown elements or who knows what on an extra solar object. So suspenseful and exciting to think about. I mean probably just dirt but you never know.
I'm curious. If an object like this comes into our solar system with high eccentricity, does it have greater velocity than objects created within our system, i.e normal comets and asteroids?
To defend itself from both radioactive and electro damages, perhaps ? (sorry - avid Avorion player here, and we used that cheaply for defence against electro damage...)
Dave, what do you think about Prof. Avi Loeb's analysis on Oumuamua. There is a scientific dispute about the origin of this object, but but you say it's natural. Do you have any sources for that? What about Dr.Loeb findings and analysis?
@@ProfessorDaveExplains Forgive me for being so late to this video, I recently discovered your channel and I’m really enjoying it. However, I think your answer to this question seems a bit shallow and unscientific. Do you think that Loeb is a crank just because he has a differing hypothesis? Also, just because one finds a way to monetize their interests does not automatically make them wrong. Why shouldn’t we apply the same reasoning to you and your channel? I assume you make money every time you put out a video, so does that mean you’re a crank who is just trying to make money? Of course not. If you think Loeb is wrong that’s fine, but why not instead of insulting his character you dissect his claims and explain why they are wrong?
@@ProfessorDaveExplains yet you had time to reply to this comment. It seems as though you have quite a bit of time, you just chose not to address the question. You also chose to side-step most of the anomalous characteristics of the object, such as the fact that it behaves like a comet yet has no coma. Your explanation, “Oumuamua doesn’t have a coma like the comets in our solar system because it’s not from our solar system.” You know as well as I that is not a scientific explanation. You completely misled your viewers into thinking Oumuamua is perfectly well understood when it clearly isn’t. Why?
How is it that we can see and photograph things that are 13 BILLION LIGHT YEARS away, but the Oort Cloud, which if it exists, would be in our Solar System, is still hypothetical?? I'm seriously curious!
Yep, it's very difficult to see things that don't emit their own light, as well as things that are very small, so anything that's both, it's real hard!
No. See here for a decent explanation; wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2014/04/01/light-has-no-mass-so-it-also-has-no-energy-according-to-einstein-but-how-can-sunlight-warm-the-earth-without-energy/#:~:text=Since%20photons%20(particles%20of%20light,their%20energy%20from%20their%20momentum.&text=But%20an%20object%20with%20zero,is%20the%20case%20with%20light.
I'm pretty dumb when it comes to this kinda stuff but I'm gonna ask... Is it not possible (in the future) to catch objects that originate from other solar systems and somehow check for signs of life. I hear alot of talk about sending our own crafts but why not use what we already have? I'd imagine there are alot of objects that we just don't see so if we increase our efforts to look for those then wouldn't our knowledge of space skyrocket?
It's not a spaceship, but a test drive of what humanity could do if actually an interstellar spaceship flew across the Solar System. Not much time to send a probe or something.
Perhaps someday, we might be able to "rendezvous" with one of these objects. And perhaps by that time, we'll be in the Hindu-deity-naming-convention phase...
First it was thought to be an asteroid because it didn't have a tale. Now it's a comet without a coma because it's an exocomet. Okay. But that deserves further explanation, don't you think?
@@ProfessorDaveExplains Perhaps you assume your viewers should have the same knowledge as you? Which is fine - I just won't subscribe then. What I meant, as a layperson asking from a place of ignorance, can you elaborate on what what accounts for the unusual acceleration. Is it the undetected - thus far -outgassing affect? Anyway, the latest I read is it's now thought to be a chuck of exo-Pluto made of solid nitrogen. If that's correct, would that have the same properties as a comet, which would -presumably - account for the unusual acceleration?
Well you don't have to get snippy, that's not the question you asked. The unusual acceleration is just that the magnitude and trajectory are indicative that it is of extrasolar origin. I don't know the precise numbers.
@@ProfessorDaveExplains You're right. That's what I get for posting too many comments on YT on videos dealing with the same subject. The question is: why don't exocomets have a coma?
The hypothesis now is that it's a pancake-shaped nitrogen iceberg. This would explain the absence of a coma as nitrogen outgassing is harder to detect. Hopefully this doesn't give the flerfers any new material.
@@dragonhealer7588 the best comment I've seen so far was from someone that was "on the fence." The question leaning them toward the FE side was, "If you have to go up to get to space, what's underneath the Earth?"
I actually think someone already proved this was unlikely, something along the lines of there not being enough nitrogen concentrations to create it, along with the fact that it wouldn't last as long as it has.
@@paulghignon4092 large concentrations of frozen nitrogen can and do exist-the surface of Pluto is largely made of nitrogen ice. As the hypothesis suggests, Oumuamua is a frozen chunk of a dwarf planet ejected from its parent system about a billion years ago. I don't see why it couldn't have survived an interstellar journey of that distance, but I'd love to see the argument against it though.
hi, I know this question isn't really related to the video, but I would love if you (or anybody else) can answer it. if, say, a spaceship, or an any object was in vacuum space with no planetary objects nearby and had a fixed rate of propulsion, will it keep adding speed forever?
Yes, but it will never reach the speed of light in any reference frame. If you were sitting on the side you would see it accelerate and gradually tend towards the speed of light but never actually reach it.
@@aliakeel Ships in space don't need to have engines on to conserve their speed. Engines are used to accelerate or decelerate, but there's nothing to slow down against that will make you lose speed.
I don't mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist or anything, I'm just going to ask one reasonably logical question here: if it was an alien spacecraft, would the world governments have admitted so or hidden the fact? I honestly don't know one way or another if it was just an a space rock from another solar system or not, but I do know that if it was revealed to be an alien ship the entire human race would have collectively shit a brick. Like, if the world governments were going to cover up the discovery of alien technology, THIS would have been it...
So true. You ever heard of this dumb eff piece of trash flat earther named Avi Loeb? He said Oumuamua might have been built by aliens hahahaha. For some reason Harvard hasn't fired him yet. I'm hoping Dave and his fans who actually believe in science will get that loser fired from his job for spreading psuedoscience
Why do you accept the hypothesis that Oumuamua is greatly elongated when variable albedo distribution on the surface would also explain the actual observation data? It could even be a combination of both geometry and albedo, as one would expect from a lump of planetary core blasted out of a system by a supernova, i.e. asymmetrical and subject to the effects of high levels of radiation on those parts facing the nova in proportion to the exposure times determined by its tumbling. Doesn't this later explanation actually do a better job of satisfying Occam's Razor?
It's not entirely it's elongated shape that has scientists perplexed, that could easily be explained. The thing that has them confused about this object is it's outgassing, which is never seen by naturally formed objects in our solar system. It's possible it could be a result of factors we entirely don't know about though.
@@paulghignon4092 I am not interested in its or your outgassing, I just asked why a hypothesis was accepted without question when there are arguably more plausible explanations.
Thanks!
Crap, I didn't realise the Oort cloud was actually hypothetical. That'll be the big take away of this episode
Don’t worry. In about 300 years Voyager 1 will cross the closest of the predicted inner edges of the Oort Cloud and maybe it can send back some images 🤓
Seriously though, while we only have circumstantial evidence (primarily cometary trajectories), something like the proposed Oort Cloud is the most reasonable hypothesis.
@@cguy96 didn't voyager 1 get shot out after saturn or jupiter and got lost and then voyager 2 made it past pluto. That's when we saw the cute little heart and now is officially in "interstellar space"?
@@curbotize Boy, I hope not as I am looking at a continuously updating Voyager 1 and 2 status! It was lost and then reestablished. But it’s a moot point as they will both be losing all power to their instruments in the next couple of years, and while they still might be able to send some limited data back, they will be out of touch with the Deep Space Network by about 2035-6.
@@cguy96 that's good to know thanks. I was under the impression all contact from both has now been lost. They're still getting voyager data? AMAZIN!!!
Same
Sometimes I wish the universe wasn't this big, then we could actually see these things ourselves
But then things would have much higher probability to collide with one another (just a guess!)
Honestly the universe being big is what makes it so interesting
What if it's not and you're being lied to. Hence why all they give you is cartoons as a reference
@@CreationAreUs yeah they invent crazy inter galactic phenomena passing close to our world to add complexity to the lie.
Wonder why they can’t take a picture is something 1km long almost half way between us and the sun?!?
Flat earth let cant take a picture of the worlds tallest building from 100 miles away
@@problemchild1976 I was eluding to more than the dildo cartoon
I honestly had no idea the ort cloud was hypothetical. People talk about it like it is 100% confirmed.
The mention of the "theoretical" Oort Cloud got me thinking. I've been keeping a project called Breakthrough: Starshot in the back of my mind. The basic concept is to put together a very small spacecraft, and attach it to a very large reflective sail. This could be propelled by lasers or even by the Sun. The propulsive force here would not be countered by atmosphere, so over time, could reach a percentage of the speed of light. The goal would be to send this to Alpha Centauri.
My idea would be to construct a primitive prototype of this project, which while not attaining such speed as to make it to Alpha Centauri in 20 years, could get going fast enough to reach the Oort Cloud in a much shorter time than it took New Horizons to reach Pluto. The craft itself should probably be large enough to house communications as well as photographic and other analytical equipment. The balance of weight vs. travel time would have to be worked out.
But with Falcon 9 flights being as cheap as they are, this project could be put underway without breaking as much of a bank as prior missions, and yet accomplish important milestones such as a faster method of reaching far distances and also, hopefully, encountering Oort Cloud objects.
get this man a ship!
Called a light sail it’s already been hypothesized before and is a method being explored to sail across galaxies with no fuel
All speeds are "a percentage of the speed of light"
Traveling for millions or billions of years and we got to see it -jaw droppped and speechless. Thank you for the perspective
Ever since I saw the Geographics video about 'Oumuamua, I've been interested in learning more about it and other interstellar objects. Thank you for the video!
I thought I know almost everything we have on Oumuamua right now, but it is still a very interesting and well-made video! ;)
Actually Dave the observations regarding the object being or not being an artificial spacecraft are not conclusive. We don't have enough data to determine the composition of the object due to the speed it was traveling the small size of said object. There are research papers saying one thing or the other but sadly we might never truly know the composition of said cigar shape object.
And all likelihood it was probably just a rock, but if there was ever going to be an alien cover up, THIS almost certainly was it.
What an informative talks about space aspects.... ✌️👍👌
Professor Dave is my spirit animal.
The most interesting thing was the contrast between how extraordinary Oumuamua was, so much so it even had to be ruled out that it was a spaceship, and how mundane Borisov was.
Omuamua isn't as special as it may seem. It's shape is a guess, based on the assumption that it's surface has a consistent brightness. It's unusual 'acceleration' was merely the fact that it didn't slow down quite as much as expected on it's way out from the sun ... a 0.1% difference that only cut an hour of it's travel time the distance of Jupiter's orbit. And it wasn't discovered until 40 days after it went around the sun, so we can't really be sure of what it was like before it encountered the sun, or that it didn't off-gas on it's closest approach, losing mass (affecting it's acceleration).
But - it's very special to the scientist who's hyping the idea of it being a spaceship ... to sell his book.
@@KenLord Come on, scientists don't "guess", they publish estimates with error bars. This was a mag 14 obj so those bars are wide. Even so, there were observations by the Hershall telescope which concluded that it was a featureless uniform red. Which suggests against a varying albedo. I understand the debate is between pancake and cigar with the former more likely. I know of no paper that contends it has a standard shape. So extraordinary, at least morphologically.
But yes, the solar wind acceleration was fascinating.
@@davidmurphy563 you say "scientists don't guess" ... on a topic involving a scientist going totally fringe without conclusive evidence, declaring that it's a spaceship, to sell his book.
Well done.
@@KenLord What's published in books isn't science, anyone can speculate to their heart's content in popular media where they are entitled to earn royalties on their work. It's what's in the peer reviewed literature that makes up the body of scientific understanding.
Guesswork has no place in respected master list journals. Speculation, on the other hand, is perfectly fine. The difference is you can't claim certainty that isn't supported by evidence.
Even then, it's all the literature considered as a whole that makes scientific understanding. There are always outliers in the literature, and a good job too, once in a blue moon we have such papers to thank for a paradigm shift as they overturn accepted fact. Mostly such papers fall into obscurity and aren't referenced.
The scientific consensus is that the evidence for Oumuamua being of intelligent origin is too scant to warrant serious consideration. The only thing that can change that is data.
@@davidmurphy563 wow, you really aren't aware of how much you don't know about how this all played out.
Damn you for always getting that song stuck in my head. Lol
He knows a lot about the science stawwwwff!
@@drdrew7475 Professor Dave Explainss!
@@sanjayvasnani988 un
The shape of ‘Oumuamua is also hypothetical. The best we could see is a point of light, but the shape was inferred from periodic changes in brightness.
2 minutes ago I searched for Oumuamua and still had the text in clipboard.
‘Oumuamua, just to be annoyingly pedantic (single quote at front).
@@cguy96 It breaks computer systems ;)
Oh wow, it's good to see that Oumuamua is still relevant and I subscribed and hit the like button
A small, but interesting thought we will never have the answer to. We named the object Oumuamua. Given the amount of time it's been traveling, theoretically it might not be the only name it's receieved. Some other civilization could have seen it, and named it's as it slipped through their own system. Perhaps naming it ",》♡◇~" or "Bob."
AMONGUS could also have been a name.
@@OrchestratedChicanery Sus
So fascinating fact told by you, Sir! It is just amazing to know that we occasionally get the visits by inter stellar asteroids also.
Kind of sad that we won’t see it again... love the name!
Would be good to send the probe, but it has to be bloody hell fast ;)
Would be nice to see a video of you talking about the possibility of alien life and what they could possibility look like.
I do have one on astrobiology in this astronomy playlist!
@@ProfessorDaveExplains great, will check it out ! Thanks :)
I think Anton was talking about this comet on his channel. Didn't they figure out it was more of a donut shape rather than that cigar type shape. Great video Proffesor Dave. Space is flippin cool. 😎👍⭐
If we discover another "exo Comet" how easy would it be to predict it's path if the intent would be to land on it?
It's about discover it early mostly. Vector and stuff is easy enough to calculate. Time is of the essence.
We already did. I think there was an epsiode on Anton Petrov's channel on another extra-solar system object '21/Borisov'.
Detection is a big deal, as they are extremely difficult to spot until they are close to the Sun. They don't emit any light and the sunlight intensity diminishes quickly (inverse-square law, both ways to the asteroid and after it bounces back to the Earth). The speed is another factor because such objects are very FAST! We would have to have a probe on standby ready to be deployed at any time with Falcon Heavy or some other big rocket. Basically, it has to be as capable as the Parker space probe or 3x the velocity of New Horizons and intercept the objective with no gravity assist, because there is no time for it.
As a planetary scientist I know of no astronomical body with a ten to one aspect ratio. Nothing in even remotely close. It most likely consists of a metal shard from a shattered core or the unspoken alternative.
Great explanation! While I think 'Oumuamua is more than likely a natural object vs. an alien artificat, Jackson and Desch published a pair of papers where they model 'Oumuamua as an ice fragment from an exo-Pluto. So far, it's the most convincing explanation I've come across. Anyway, great video, and cheers!
Excellent video thanks
The thought of landing on an exo-comet is so cool. Biggest problem I see is matching the velocity. It isn’t just the ~90 km/s, which we HAVE reached with the Parker Solar Probe, but the hyperbolic trajectory.
But, it would be so cool.
I think it requires early discovery and some luck. Like, if such an object is heading to the sun for a slingshot, it might be possible to lauch a spacecraft has enoough time to accelerate and gain velocity in the same direction.
I think we would need to have some probes in stock so that we can send at least one of them as soon as we spot the interstellar object. However, all the probes that we have sent so far are "task-calibrated", they are designed with their future mission in mind from the very beginning. I don't think our spacecraft technology is advanced enough (yet) to build a versatile probe that could broadly optimize its workings according to what kind of environment it meets at the spot.
@@giderahwolf we tried designing a versatile, “multi-usage” platform before. It was called the space shuttle and it basically did everything fair at best and much more expensively than it needed to be.
@@cguy96 I understand. That's why I think it takes more advanced technology than what we have today to have 'star trek craft' at hand without ruining the economy. :-)
@@giderahwolf it was clear, I was just expounding on your comment.
I had heard recently that it was now thought that it was more of a pancake shape. Has that between confirmed?
Me: Wow, an exo-comet. How insanely unlikely is it that an object arrives from another solar system during the tiny (relatively) amount of time we've had the ability to track it.
Dave: ...and we already found another...
Me: Love Science!
Last few years has really been amazing. We go from finding a comet or 2 and maybe some other exoplanet, to finding hundreds of new objects in the sky. Space knowledge is really starting to expand. Pun intended 😉😎
It’s called observation bias. We didn’t see any microbes before inventing the microscope, did we?
Same with small celestial objects. Very possible (indeed probable) that there’s a continual flux of them so as soon as we have equipment advanced enough to detect them we do. It’s not “insanely unlikely” it’s normal.
Same with the detection of gravitational waves. If waves get constantly produced in the universe it’s not a matter of chance detecting one as soon as the detector gets switched on.
@@pansepot1490 exactly. Well said. 👍
@Professor Dave Explains, maybe make a discord server as you are a bit more than just an educational channel, and it would be nice to have a place for us fans to hang out.
PS. It is 100% free to create a server
Honestly that probably wouldn't be a great idea unfortunately. Maybe he will open one up, though, who knows.
I have one, it's offered to patrons of a certain tier on Patreon! Honestly no one really uses it though.
@@ProfessorDaveExplains I would use it if you did make a public one (just saying)
This comet came in my olympiad paper lol glad to see professor dave do a video on it
Me: Wow, that was a close encounter with an amazingly old comet.
Also me: lol it's a flying shit
😂😂😂
I was very confused by the years with decimal following because I didn't notice its presence until 2019 and the way it was counted made it seem like this object was moving 10x the speed of the other planets
i love dave thank you dave you helped me with my chemistry reaction balance homework dave and now i cant stop watching ur videos dave.
Such cool stuff! I wonder what comet 2I/Borisov has in store for us? Fun facts:
Borisov is traveling at about 110,000 miles per hour and has a much higher carbon monoxide concentration that other solar origin comets. Scientists believe this interstellar comet formed around a Red Dwarf star, which may explain its high carbon monoxide content.
Ain't science just completely, awesomely cool?!
I wouldn't be surprised if we end up learning that this kind of thing isn't such a rare event.
Because it isn't. There are some early estimates available regarding the number of such objects in interstellar space, and there have to be trillions of them in the galaxy. Another issue is detecting them. They are extremely hard to spot unless they are very close to the Sun.
I just watch astronomy to relieve the monotony of life, if aleins are real and can communicate and cooperate with us i will be extremely happy and freak out.
I hope we find proof of life beyond earth while I’m here. I don’t care if it’s sentient or single celled. I think there’s a good chance we will, but who knows,
Aliens are real. Probably we won't find any evidence in the coming few centuries. So tell your grandkids to tell their grandkids to be prepared to freak out.
@@sanjayvasnani988 bro they literally came here, check the pentagon video, they don’t know what it is
Let us not forget the meaning of scientific theory when we say theoretical. But Dave said hypothetical Oort Cloud which I would love to hear his take on
Because it is made up of relatively small objects and they do not emit their own light, the oort cloud is extremely hard to observe. So it is still hypothetical and voyager will get there in a few hundred years. But most evidence points to it's existence, we just have to prove it.
How do we determine what an Alien ship is or isn't, if we don't know what 'Alien' itself actually is, it could've contained microscopic lifeforms or mineral lifeforms or lifeforms that we have no concept of thus far (and now never will).. I guess that would be a cocoon or a pod? But is that any different to a generation ship, allbeit the materials they're made from they would both have life contained within a vessel thats travelling somewhere.
How do we know that wasn't a micrscopic intelligent lifeform that had mastered interstellar travel in a rock? they we're clever enough to steer clear of Earth :)
Will humankind in the distant future have regrets of missing that rock ?
Or was it a good thing we missed the rock,had it contained a harmfull bacteria or our Kryptonite.
Maybe in another alternate universe we captured the rock
I feel like comets like this pass by pretty frequently and we only happened to notice this one no?....
pls make more videos about physics
Wait we're already up to 21 extra-solar objects?
Touching down on an object that is not from our solar system seems exciting!
Interesting window on the composition of extra-solar objects.
I miss the anti-flat earth series
Sadly, there's only so many ways to say: "You're an idiot and here's why"
I was wondering if some flerf would show up on here and claim fake or CGI. But Proffesor Dave tore them a new one more than a few times now. Everything possible has been done already. Like the previous comment. There's only so much you can explain to a moron.
@@curbotize yeah it's like playing chess with pigeon
Are you familiar with Cool Hard Logic? He has a substantial series debunking flat earth. I have watched it a few times because besides being funny it’s packed with a lot of practical science that is fun to learn.
Beware it’s also packed with insults to flat earthers so it’s not exactly child friendly.
Probably a high rotation on its axis while it was red hot was what gave it its elongated shape...just my thought
Could we not of named it something easier to say?
No videos on the galileo project?
How old those exocomets must be? I mean, seing they are slow as balls some may've started on their interstellar journey before solar system was even a thing.
Didn't more research on the way it was tumbling lead to the conclusion that it wasn't nearly as cylindrical as originally thought?
It’s the damn bugs throwing rocks at earth! Want to learn more?
'Would you like to know more?'
You forgot to mention that there's a big difference between asteroids and comets comets have more water than a regular asteroid so when they get close to a sun it creates a comet tail, it's just Ice melting
Here’s hoping NASA or perhaps one or more of the other space agencies is planning a landing. We could find as of yet unknown elements or who knows what on an extra solar object. So suspenseful and exciting to think about. I mean probably just dirt but you never know.
Watching astronomical videos like these is the perfect way to overwhelm yourself
I'm curious. If an object like this comes into our solar system with high eccentricity, does it have greater velocity than objects created within our system, i.e normal comets and asteroids?
2:57 I'm not happy that we rejected the "alien spaceship" hypothesis so fast. Why wouldn't aliens build a startships with a rocky body?
To defend itself from both radioactive and electro damages, perhaps ?
(sorry - avid Avorion player here, and we used that cheaply for defence against electro damage...)
I noticed someone else in the comments talk about other interstellar objects that have visited our solar system. What are they?
i wonder how much delta v would it take for a craft from Earth to rendezvous with any extrasolar object. you know... if we can build such a craft :)
We should be thinking about launching probes into orbits out toward saturn. They could then be sent to intercept such objects.
Dave, what do you think about Prof. Avi Loeb's analysis on Oumuamua. There is a scientific dispute about the origin of this object, but but you say it's natural. Do you have any sources for that? What about Dr.Loeb findings and analysis?
He's a crank trying to sell books.
@@ProfessorDaveExplains this made me chuckle
@@ProfessorDaveExplains Forgive me for being so late to this video, I recently discovered your channel and I’m really enjoying it. However, I think your answer to this question seems a bit shallow and unscientific. Do you think that Loeb is a crank just because he has a differing hypothesis? Also, just because one finds a way to monetize their interests does not automatically make them wrong. Why shouldn’t we apply the same reasoning to you and your channel? I assume you make money every time you put out a video, so does that mean you’re a crank who is just trying to make money? Of course not.
If you think Loeb is wrong that’s fine, but why not instead of insulting his character you dissect his claims and explain why they are wrong?
There are a lot of cranks out there. I don't have time to dissect them all, bud.
@@ProfessorDaveExplains yet you had time to reply to this comment. It seems as though you have quite a bit of time, you just chose not to address the question.
You also chose to side-step most of the anomalous characteristics of the object, such as the fact that it behaves like a comet yet has no coma. Your explanation,
“Oumuamua doesn’t have a coma like the comets in our solar system because it’s not from our solar system.”
You know as well as I that is not a scientific explanation. You completely misled your viewers into thinking Oumuamua is perfectly well understood when it clearly isn’t. Why?
How is it that we can see and photograph things that are 13 BILLION LIGHT YEARS away, but the Oort Cloud, which if it exists, would be in our Solar System, is still hypothetical?? I'm seriously curious!
Size and brightness matters. The most distant galaxies have billions of stars, the Oort cloud objects are reflecting light from the sun.
Yep, it's very difficult to see things that don't emit their own light, as well as things that are very small, so anything that's both, it's real hard!
How come nobody talks about how close it got to the sun and the temperature it had to endure. We talking over 600 degrees Fahrenheit
I love your face Professor Dave 💗
hello , this may be a silly question. Do light have mass ??
No. See here for a decent explanation;
wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2014/04/01/light-has-no-mass-so-it-also-has-no-energy-according-to-einstein-but-how-can-sunlight-warm-the-earth-without-energy/#:~:text=Since%20photons%20(particles%20of%20light,their%20energy%20from%20their%20momentum.&text=But%20an%20object%20with%20zero,is%20the%20case%20with%20light.
@@ianw_xvi8784 Thank you
Professor are you still doing the band thing?? Would like to see you play those synths sometime✌️✌️
Yep! More Simulated Sun coming soon!
I'm pretty dumb when it comes to this kinda stuff but I'm gonna ask... Is it not possible (in the future) to catch objects that originate from other solar systems and somehow check for signs of life. I hear alot of talk about sending our own crafts but why not use what we already have? I'd imagine there are alot of objects that we just don't see so if we increase our efforts to look for those then wouldn't our knowledge of space skyrocket?
It's not a spaceship, but a test drive of what humanity could do if actually an interstellar spaceship flew across the Solar System. Not much time to send a probe or something.
The next exo-comet will be named by the Oakridge Brothers: "Mmpapamaumau".
If only we could live forever...
Very interesting.
Perhaps someday, we might be able to "rendezvous" with one of these objects. And perhaps by that time, we'll be in the Hindu-deity-naming-convention phase...
Have you read Avi Loeb’s book and his conclusion?
What telescope do you have?
First it was thought to be an asteroid because it didn't have a tale. Now it's a comet without a coma because it's an exocomet. Okay. But that deserves further explanation, don't you think?
What is there to explain? It's a comet from outside our system.
@@ProfessorDaveExplains Perhaps you assume your viewers should have the same knowledge as you? Which is fine - I just won't subscribe then. What I meant, as a layperson asking from a place of ignorance, can you elaborate on what what accounts for the unusual acceleration. Is it the undetected - thus far -outgassing affect? Anyway, the latest I read is it's now thought to be a chuck of exo-Pluto made of solid nitrogen. If that's correct, would that have the same properties as a comet, which would -presumably - account for the unusual acceleration?
Well you don't have to get snippy, that's not the question you asked. The unusual acceleration is just that the magnitude and trajectory are indicative that it is of extrasolar origin. I don't know the precise numbers.
@@ProfessorDaveExplains You're right. That's what I get for posting too many comments on YT on videos dealing with the same subject. The question is: why don't exocomets have a coma?
I dunno, maybe all the material that could be shed due to solar radiation has already done so? It's a good question.
Clearly O'muamua was Irish in origin!
The hypothesis now is that it's a pancake-shaped nitrogen iceberg. This would explain the absence of a coma as nitrogen outgassing is harder to detect. Hopefully this doesn't give the flerfers any new material.
Give the flerfs all the material you can, they are funny AF!
@@dragonhealer7588 the best comment I've seen so far was from someone that was "on the fence." The question leaning them toward the FE side was, "If you have to go up to get to space, what's underneath the Earth?"
@@TH3M0L3CUL3M4N
Ouch!
Edit: Great screen name BTW
I actually think someone already proved this was unlikely, something along the lines of there not being enough nitrogen concentrations to create it, along with the fact that it wouldn't last as long as it has.
@@paulghignon4092 large concentrations of frozen nitrogen can and do exist-the surface of Pluto is largely made of nitrogen ice. As the hypothesis suggests, Oumuamua is a frozen chunk of a dwarf planet ejected from its parent system about a billion years ago. I don't see why it couldn't have survived an interstellar journey of that distance, but I'd love to see the argument against it though.
Anyone else read "Rendezvous with Rama" by Arthur Clarke?
Gods turd got away.
Oumuamua looks like MC-80 Home one from Star Wars
hi, I know this question isn't really related to the video, but I would love if you (or anybody else) can answer it. if, say, a spaceship, or an any object was in vacuum space with no planetary objects nearby and had a fixed rate of propulsion, will it keep adding speed forever?
Yes, but it will never reach the speed of light in any reference frame. If you were sitting on the side you would see it accelerate and gradually tend towards the speed of light but never actually reach it.
@@Релёкс84 right. so the claim "nothing goes faster if it doesnt get any more momentum that how much it has" is completely wrong, yeah?
@@aliakeel No, because you speficically mentioned a fixed rate of propulsion which implies increasing your momentum (and/or reducing your mass).
@@Релёкс84 so if a ship's thrusters were only capable of running 200 km/h, it would stay at that speed and won't accelerate beyond that?
@@aliakeel Ships in space don't need to have engines on to conserve their speed. Engines are used to accelerate or decelerate, but there's nothing to slow down against that will make you lose speed.
I don't mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist or anything, I'm just going to ask one reasonably logical question here: if it was an alien spacecraft, would the world governments have admitted so or hidden the fact?
I honestly don't know one way or another if it was just an a space rock from another solar system or not, but I do know that if it was revealed to be an alien ship the entire human race would have collectively shit a brick. Like, if the world governments were going to cover up the discovery of alien technology, THIS would have been it...
Oumuamua is as close to a flat earth as flerfs will ever see. 🤔 too bad they refuse to understand why. 🤨
So true. You ever heard of this dumb eff piece of trash flat earther named Avi Loeb? He said Oumuamua might have been built by aliens hahahaha.
For some reason Harvard hasn't fired him yet. I'm hoping Dave and his fans who actually believe in science will get that loser fired from his job for spreading psuedoscience
@@MarvinMonroe I doubt that a flat earther or an ufologist actually works at Havard. Probably just nothing more than words to feed the cult.
Interesting objects keep sling-shooting around the sun.....unless those are just the ones we see hahaha
I was really hoping it was Rama.
Looks like omuamua is coming back..
Dr. Avi Loeb is malding lol
Why do you accept the hypothesis that Oumuamua is greatly elongated when variable albedo distribution on the surface would also explain the actual observation data? It could even be a combination of both geometry and albedo, as one would expect from a lump of planetary core blasted out of a system by a supernova, i.e. asymmetrical and subject to the effects of high levels of radiation on those parts facing the nova in proportion to the exposure times determined by its tumbling. Doesn't this later explanation actually do a better job of satisfying Occam's Razor?
It's not entirely it's elongated shape that has scientists perplexed, that could easily be explained. The thing that has them confused about this object is it's outgassing, which is never seen by naturally formed objects in our solar system. It's possible it could be a result of factors we entirely don't know about though.
@@paulghignon4092 I am not interested in its or your outgassing, I just asked why a hypothesis was accepted without question when there are arguably more plausible explanations.
I love how the nasa Illuminati keep inventing these things to try and continue to make us think space is real - wink wink
You could see it with a telescope. Also space is real. It's veen observed long before nasa existed
@@aaryajain6396 shhhhhhh - don’t tell them their conspiracy doesn’t work, it’s the only thing they’ve got left to hold onto ;)
Solid nitrogen?
It's an rogue popsicle
Well , Asteroids look like Oumuamua will flew pass though Earth ones more .
Bring it home
It was just passing by to drop off some live parcels , 😂🤣
Oh look a Moncalamari cruiser
Omowa omowa do you know da way?
Whatever it is one thing is for sure none of the interstellar beings are interested in Earth or our Solar System
I want to go!
I think it’s a asteroid or comet
Ooohh very cool
Oort cloud hypothetical? o_O
It’s Battlestar Galactica
Our Alien Guardians...
omaumau may be aliens's researching
Nope, it's just a rock