scholarly journals Investigating the dynamical history of the interstellar object ’Oumuamua

2018 ◽  
Vol 610 ◽  
pp. L11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr A. Dybczyński ◽  
Małgorzata Królikowska

Here we try to find the origin of 1I/2017 U1 ’Oumuamua, the first interstellar object recorded inside the solar system. To this aim, we searched for close encounters between ’Oumuamua and all nearby stars with known kinematic data during their past motion. We had checked over 200 thousand stars and found just a handful of candidates. If we limit our investigation to within a 60 pc sphere surrounding the Sun, then the most probable candidate for the ’Oumuamua parent stellar habitat is the star UCAC4 535-065571. However GJ 876 is also a favourable candidate. However, the origin of ’Oumuamua from a much more distant source is still an open question. Additionally, we found that the quality of the original orbit of ’Oumuamua is accurate enough for such a study and that none of the checked stars had perturbed its motion significantly. All numerical results of this research are available in the appendix.

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 187-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.S. Greaves

Collisions amongst comets create belts of orbiting debris and, by using submillimetre wavelength observations, these collision zones can be imaged around nearby stars. An image of the closest Solar analogue, τ Ceti, shows that it possesses at least 20 times the content of the outer Solar System in cool debris particles. The inferred population of parent colliders is around 1 M[oplus ], also much larger than in the Sun's Kuiper Belt of comets. This system represents a different evolutionary outcome for a Sun-like star, with no Jupiter-like planet but many cometary bodies, and thus a potentially heavy and prolonged history of impacts on any inner terrestrial planets. Since τ Ceti is 10 Gyr old, life would have had to deal with massive bombardment over very long timescales. Furthermore, impactors in the 10 km-upwards class could arrive at intervals of 1 Myr or less, longer than recovery times on Earth, and so similar biology is unlikely. It is presently unknown whether nearby stars typically have comet belts similar to that of the Sun or of τ Ceti; extrapolations of existing data suggest many stars could be at least 2–5 times above the Solar debris level. Future large telescopes will be able to probe down to Solar System levels of cometary debris.


1974 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 489-489
Author(s):  
M. W. Ovenden

AbstractThe intuitive notion that a satellite system will change its configuration rapidly when the satellites come close together, and slowly when they are far apart, is generalized to ‘The Principle of Least Interaction Action’, viz. that such a system will most often be found in a configuration for which the time-mean of the action associated with the mutual interaction of the satellites is a minimum. The principle has been confirmed by numerical integration of simulated systems with large relative masses. The principle lead to the correct prediction of the preference, in the solar system, for nearly-commensurable periods. Approximate methods for calculating the evolution of an actual satellite system over periods ˜ 109 yr show that the satellite system of Uranus, the five major satellites of Jupiter, and the five planets of Barnard’s star recently discovered, are all found very close to their respective minimum interaction distributions. Applied to the planetary system of the Sun, the principle requires that there was once a planet of mass ˜ 90 Mθ in the asteroid belt, which ‘disappeared’ relatively recently in the history of the solar system.


1988 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-47
Author(s):  
C. P. Snyman

In view of the principle of actualism the early history of the earth must be explained on the basis of present-day natural phenomena and the basic Laws of Nature. The study of the solar system leads to the conclusion that the planets were formed as by-products when the sun developed from a rotating cloud of cosmic gas and dust. The protoplanets or planetesimals could have accreted as a result of mutual collisions, during which they could have become partly molten so that they could differentiate into a crust, a mantle and a core on the basis of differences in density.


1985 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 31-41
Author(s):  
W.M. Napier

AbstractThe effects of encounters with massive nebulae on the long-period comet population are examined, paying particular attention to the uncertainties in the data. An earlier conclusion, that the long-period comet system is dynamically unstable, is upheld. Whether replenishment by unbinding from a dense inner comet cloud is a viable hypothesis awaits detailed modelling, but a qualitative discussion is given which argues tentatively against it. If comets occur in molecular clouds, however, their capture into temporarily bound Solar System orbits is a natural consequence of close encounters for realistic velocities and potentials. A large disturbance or capture may have occurred a few Myr ago as the Sun emerged from the Orion spiral arm.


1881 ◽  
Vol 172 ◽  
pp. 491-535 ◽  

In previous papers on the subject of tidal friction I have confined my attention principally to the case of a planet attended by a single satellite. But in order to make the investigation applicable to the history of the earth and moon it was necessary to take notice of the perturbation of the sun. In consequence of the largeness of the sun’s mass it was not there requisite to make a complete investigation of the theory of a planet attended by a pair of satellites. In the first part of this paper the theory of the tidal friction of a central body attended by any number of satellites is considered.


IEEE Spectrum ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 32-53
Author(s):  
Andrew Driesman ◽  
Jack Ercol ◽  
Edward Gaddy ◽  
Andrew Gerger

1984 ◽  
Vol 81 ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Loup Bertaux

AbstractThe Sun is moving in respect to the nearby stars with a velocity of 20 km.s-1 in the direction of the Apex, α = 271° and δ = 30° (celestial coordinates). As the lights of a car illuminate the water droplets when driving in the fog, the Sun illuminates the Hydrogen and helium atoms of the interstellar medium which it travels through. As a result, the sun and the whole solar system are imbedded in a glow of the resonance lines of hydrogen (H Lyman α ; 121.6 nm) and helium (58.4 nm), which have been studied by several space instruments in the last 14 years.From the intensity distribution of the glow in the solar system, one can derive the density of H and He in the L1SM and the direction of the relative motion between the sun and the LISM in the very vicinity of the sun. The velocity module Vw and the LISM temperature T are more adequately found from a measurement of the Lyman α line shape, which is an image of the velocity distribution of H atoms.A summary of results will be presented, together with a discussion of the methods of interpretation and their difficulties. The vector is found to be 20 ± 1 km.s-1 in the direction α = 254 ± 3°, δ = - 17 ± 3°, quite different from the Apex direction. This means that the LISM is moving also in respect to the local frame of reference giving rise to the socalled Interstellar Wind. This wind blows in the galactic plane at 16 km.s-1, in the direction , significantly different from the direction found by interstellar absorption lines on stars within ≃ 100 pc, pointing to a local significance of this flow. The temperature of the LISM is T = 8,000 ± 1,000 K, the density n (H) ≃ 0.04 to 0.06 cm-3, and the helium density n (He) ≃ 0.015 to 0.020. The high helium/hydrogen ratio, in respect to the cosmological ratio, would imply that a substantial part of the hydrogen is ionized. Temperature, density and degree of ionization of the LISM are suggesting that the sun is now in an intermediate phase of the interstellar medium, at the Interface between a hot and tenuous gas, and a dense and cold cloud of gas.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. eaba5967
Author(s):  
Benjamin P. Weiss ◽  
Xue-Ning Bai ◽  
Roger R. Fu

We review recent advances in our understanding of magnetism in the solar nebula and protoplanetary disks (PPDs). We discuss the implications of theory, meteorite measurements, and astronomical observations for planetary formation and nebular evolution. Paleomagnetic measurements indicate the presence of fields of 0.54 ± 0.21 G at ~1 to 3 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun and ≳0.06 G at 3 to 7 AU until >1.22 and >2.51 million years (Ma) after solar system formation, respectively. These intensities are consistent with those predicted to enable typical astronomically observed protostellar accretion rates of ~10−8M⊙year−1, suggesting that magnetism played a central role in mass transport in PPDs. Paleomagnetic studies also indicate fields <0.006 G and <0.003 G in the inner and outer solar system by 3.94 and 4.89 Ma, respectively, consistent with the nebular gas having dispersed by this time. This is similar to the observed lifetimes of extrasolar protoplanetary disks.


Theories that require the co-genetic formation of the Sun and planets have difficulty in explaining the slow rotation of the Sun. An analysis is made of various mechanisms for slowing down the core of an evolving nebula. Two of these involve a high magnetic dipole moment for the early Sun. The first envisages magnetic linkage to an external plasma but requires a dipole moment 10 6 times that of the present Sun. The other is based on the co-rotation of m atter leaving the Sun during a T Tauri stage, and requires a dipole moment 10 4 times the present value. A mechanical process for transferring angular momentum outward involving dissipation in a solar-nebula disc is incapable of giving what is required. Two processes of star formation in a turbulent cloud are discussed. Both are capable of giving a slowly rotating Sun. Various models for producing planets are examined in relation to the spin they would produce. Planets formed from floccules would be spinning quickly but could evolve in such a way as to give observed spins for giant planets and also satellite families. Accretion models are very sensitive to assumptions, and parameters and can be adjusted to explain almost any observation. Protoplanets formed in elliptical orbits would acquire spin angular momentum through solar tidal action and would evolve to give reasonable spin rates and regular satellite families. The various tilts of their spin axes could be explained by interactions between protoplanets in the early Solar System.


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