A cigar-shaped asteroid that passed near the sun last month did not originate in our solar system and may provide clues about the possibility of life in other solar systems, Nasa said yesterday.
“While its elongated shape is quite surprising, and unlike asteroids seen in our solar system, it may provide new clues into how other solar systems formed,” according to the US space agency.
Astronomers have named the asteroid 1I/2017 U1, or ‘Oumuamua - a Hawaiian word that roughly means “a messenger that reaches out from the distant past”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“It’s just a rock, not an ET, but it’s one that could tell us profound things about where we came from,” The Independent says.
‘Oumuamua has an unusual shape - with its length about ten times its width - and a deep colour that suggests it may contain carbon-based molecules.
“It is thought to be an extremely dark object, absorbing 96% of the light that falls on its surface, and it is red,” The Guardian writes. “This colour is the hallmark of organic (carbon-based) molecules. Organic molecules are the building blocks of the biological molecules that allow life to function.
“It is widely thought that the delivery of organic molecules to the early Earth by the collision of comets and asteroids made life here possible. ‘Oumuamua shows that the same could be possible in other solar systems.”
Astronomers say it could be one of 10,000 interstellar asteroids lurking in our cosmic neighbourhood.
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imaginationFeature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Google: A monopoly past its prime?Feature Google’s antitrust case ends with a slap on the wrist as courts struggle to keep up with the tech industry’s rapid changes
-
Patrick Hemingway: The Hemingway son who tended to his father’s legacyFeature He was comfortable in the shadow of his famous father, Ernest Hemingway
-
Africa could become the next frontier for space programsThe Explainer China and the US are both working on space applications for Africa
-
NASA reveals ‘clearest sign of life’ on Mars yetSpeed Read The evidence came in the form of a rock sample collected on the planet
-
SpaceX breaks Starship losing streak in 10th testspeed read The Starship rocket's test flight was largely successful, deploying eight dummy satellites during its hour in space
-
NASA is moving away from tracking climate changeThe Explainer Climate missions could be going dark
-
Hurricanes are not exclusive to Earth. They can happen in space.Under the radar These storms may cause navigational problems
-
Why does the US want to put nuclear reactors on the moon?Today's Big Question The plans come as NASA is facing significant budget cuts
-
Answers to how life on Earth began could be stuck on MarsUnder the Radar Donald Trump plans to scrap Nasa's Mars Sample Return mission – stranding test tubes on the Red Planet and ceding potentially valuable information to China
-
The treasure trove of platinum on the moonUnder the radar This kind of bounty could lead to commercial exploitation
