           APOD: 2017 November 22  Oumuamua: Interstellar Asteroid

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                               2017 November 22
                                      [2]
                      'Oumuamua: Interstellar Asteroid
    Illustration Credit: European Southern Observatory [3] , M. Kornmesser

Explanation: Nothing like it has ever been seen before. The unusual space rock
'Oumuamua [4] is so intriguing mainly because it is the first asteroid [5]
ever detected from outside our Solar System [6]  -- although likely many more
are to follow given modern computer-driven sky monitoring. Therefore
humanity's telescopes -- of nearly every variety -- have put 'Oumuamua [7]
into their observing schedule to help better understand this unusual
interstellar visitor [8] . Pictured is an artist's illustration [9]  of what
'Oumuamua [10] might look like up close. 'Oumuamua is also intriguing,
however, because it has unexpected parallels to Rama [11] , a famous fictional
interstellar spaceship created by the late science fiction writer Arthur C.
Clarke [12] . Like Rama, 'Oumuamua is unusually elongated [13] , should be
made of strong material to avoid breaking apart, is only passing through our
Solar System, and passed unusually close to the Sun for something
gravitationally unbound. Unlike a visiting spaceship, though, 'Oumuamua's
trajectory [14] , speed, color [15] , and even probability of detection [16]
are consistent with it forming naturally around a normal star [17]  many
millions of years ago, being expelled after gravitationally encountering a
normal planet [18] , and subsequently orbiting in our Galaxy alone. Even given
'Oumuamua [19] 's likely conventional origin, perhaps humanity can hold hope
[20]  that one day we will have the technology to engineer 'Oumuamua -- or
another Solar System interloper -- into an interstellar Rama of our own.

                      Tomorrow's picture: open space [21]

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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1711/OumuamuaDrawing_ESO_1280.jpg
  [3] http://www.eso.org/public/
  [4] http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1737/
  [5]
https://www.nature.com/news/
astronomers-race-to-learn-from-first-interstellar-asteroid-ever-seen-1.22925
  [6] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/kids/index.cfm
  [7] https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2017-300
  [8] ap171103.html
  [9] http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1737a/
  [10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%BBOumuamua
  [11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama
  [12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke
  [13] https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.04927
  [14] http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/interstellar/
  [15] https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.09977
  [16] https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.11364
  [17] http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_sources/normal_stars.html
  [18] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/
  [19] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbL1ZoAQgUU
  [20] ap141208.html
  [21] ap171123.html
  [22] ap171121.html
  [23] archivepix.html
  [24] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [25] lib/aptree.html
  [26] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [27] calendar/allyears.html
  [28] /apod.rss
  [29] lib/edlinks.html
  [30] lib/about_apod.html
  [31] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=171122
  [32] ap171123.html
  [33] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [34] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [35] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [36] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [37] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [38] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [39] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [40] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [41] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [42] http://www.mtu.edu/
