In very few cases, telescopes around the world move almost in unison to observe the same area of heaven. This is what happens in the last hours after the detection of an object temporarily called as A11PL3Z, whose trajectory clearly indicates that it comes from the limits of the solar system. This would make it the third object of this type after the popular Oumuamua and Comet 2i/Borisov.
The first notification came from an astrophysic student in California, who shared in Bluesk Image A11PL3Z deep random review in Chile. From there, amateur astronomers discovered previous images of the object in the data of the last asteroid system (Atlas) from June 25 to 29, and great observatories, such as the Great Canary Islands (GTC), were launched to observe it.
“There are several observatories in the world that follow it, and this includes Teide, from where we observe it last night with two telescopes,” confirms Javier Limandro, researcher of the Astrophysical Institute of the Canary Islands (IAC), Eldiario.es. In particular, IAC received 4 images with Atlas-Teide with a 20-minute difference between each of them where he watches how the object changes position, and a video with a 1-meter telescope of the Teide Observatory, where its displacement is observed within 10 minutes.
The Lycandro group in the observatory Tadee planned to follow him tonight from the Great Canary Telescope. The first data indicate that it can be about 20 km in diameter, which is at the height of Jupiter, and that by the end of October it will reach the orbit of Mars. But this will not pass near the Earth.
If this comes from the outside, orbit is hyperbole and is the case of this object. We believe that this will not change, because determination tells us about very open hyperbole
Javier Likandro
– Astrophysical IAC
“If this is confirmed, it will be effectively a very relevant object, because it is the third that, as we know, comes from another star, from some other star, that we still do not know what it is,” says Likandro. “It is possible that in a few hours we have confirmation, of course, when the new data that will be obtained in the observatory of the Hawaiian Islands and on the western coast of the United States.”
Primary material from another system
Why is the detection of such an interstellar object so relevant? Since asteroids and comets are the remnants of the formation of planets that rotated around the star, they offer us valuable information about other systems that are different from ours. “We have the main material that was formed around another star,” says Likandro. “What we can know about this material tells us whether the processes that our asteroids and comets are created are similar to those that are found in other stars and produce similar bodies.” In addition, he adds, they are extremely rare, they will cross our system for several months, and we will never see them again.
Why are scientists who come from another system? From the observatories of the Atlas network, such as Teide, they make images of the same individual areas for an hour. What is fixed is the stars, and what movements can be asteroids. “Based on the provisions measured from this body, the orbit is determined,” Limandro explains. “If it is an orbit associated with the sun, the orbit has an elliptical form. But if it comes from the outside, the orbit is hyperbole and is the case of this object. We believe that this will not change, because it is very open hyperbole. ”
“It is currently calculated that the new pre -designated interstellar object as A11PL3Z has a diameter of about 20 km,” says Josep Maria Tigo, the main researcher of asteroids, comets and meteorites of the Group of Sciences of Scientific Sciences CSIC. “It can be an air snake, which with a very eccentric orbit will cross high speed (about 68 km/s compared to the sun) by the solar system, approaching the sun near the orbit of Mars. This followed a rather tangential trajectory, which makes him occur relatively close to the plane of Mars and Jupiter, although without significant severity disorders. ”
“If, finally, this is confirmed, it will be the third small body that does not belong to our solar system that we discovered,” explains Julia de Leon, IAC astrophysics as an expert on an asteroid. “These interstellar objects are very interesting, because they tell us that asteroids and/or comets are in other planetary systems, and studying them allows us to see whether they are like or not with those that we have in our own system, and, therefore, understand how they are formed. So far, we have identified only two, so the increase in the sample is fundamental. ”
Rene Daffard, an asteroid expert at the Astrophysics Institute of Andalusia (IAA), believes that it is legally asking why we have not yet discovered this type of interstellar objects. “Maybe we found them before, but we ignored them,” he raises. “As if we were used to seeing Spanish cars, and suddenly we have a technology to understand that a plate from some says that they are really from another country,” he says.
The specialist believes that thanks to these conclusions, we understand that the solar system is nothing cleanThe field we also get dust from other solar systems, he notes. “And this is simply because the solar system also moves through the galaxy and takes the material that was there and which was formed around another star,” he says. “In this sense, it seems absolutely normal that we find objects formed around other stars or, on the other hand, objects that were not formed in our solar system.”
