Scientists know the home star of interstellar object Oumuamua

Oumuamua
NASA

Space experts discovered a mysterious object speeding by the sun in 2017. After initial analysis, scientists came to know that it was an interstellar visitor from deep space and the mysterious object was named 'Oumuamua', which means 'messenger from afar arriving first' in the Hawaiian language. Now, using the data gathered from a European spacecraft, a team of International scientists has identified four dwarf stars as the home of the interstellar cigar-shaped object.

As per experts, the interstellar object might be from red dwarf HIP 3757, sunlike star HD 292249 or other two stars which are not named yet. Astronomers also suggest that gravitational force from a giant planet in its solar system might have pulled out Oumuamua from its orbit millions of years ago, and since then, it has been wandering across the universe.

"Somehow it must have escaped from that system to get to us. At what point in the life of the system we do not know," said Coryn Bailer-Jones, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, and the leader of the international team of researchers, NBC News reports.

Once it was spotted near the sun, several teams of international scientists had tried to locate the home of Oumamua. However, most of their efforts went in vain. Now, this team of researchers has apparently tasted success after they made use of data from the European Space Agency's Gaia probe. It should be noted that Gaia probe is a space observatory that studies more than a billion stars in our Milky Way.

However, a section of conspiracy theorists strongly believes that Oumuamua is actually an alien mothership from deep space. As per these theorists, Oumuamua has visited our solar system to issue a strong warning to humanity that an alien invasion is imminent. The cigar-shape of Oumuamua too raises a million doubts among these theorists, and some of them even alleged a government cover-up to hide the existence of extraterrestrial life.

This article was first published on September 26, 2018
Related topics : Space
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