The Origin of 'Oumuamua, Our First Interstellar Visitor | Space Time

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In this Space Time Journal Club we look into the origins of 'Oumuamua, an asteroid visiting us from beyond our solar system! We'll focus on the results of:

"The origin of interstellar asteroidal objects like 1I/2017 U1"
Portegies Zwart, Pelupessy, Bedorf, Cai & Torres 2017

On October 19th this year astronomers spotted an object moving rapidly away from the sun. The discovery was made by Pan-STARRS - the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System: a group of telescopes that constantly monitor the sky for moving or variable objects like asteroids or comets, It was initially thought to be a new comet, but after 34 days of follow up observations and a bit of orbital mechanics, it became abundantly clear that we were looking at the first object ever observed that came from outside our solar system. The mysterious object has been dubbed 1I: the first object in a brand new International Astronomical Union class, with “I” standing for “interstellar”. 1I also scored a more poetic name: 'Oumuamua, from the Hawaiian meaning “a messenger from afar arriving fast”.

Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Drew Rosen and Matt O'Dowd
Produced by Rusty Ward
Graphics by Kurt Ross
Assistant Editing and Sound Design by Mike Petrow

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[anteconfig]

If aliens are throwing rocks at us from afar, we can safely say they're still immature.

[NecroBones]

PBS Space Time has always been excellent, but I think it just keeps getting better and better. Keep up the great work!

[joeluna]

As a native Hawaiian, I sincerely thank you for pronouncing 'Oumuamua correctly. :)

[megamanmadrid]

Unlike other videos about this interestelar rock where they just say : wow, it's like super weird, dude, and elongated, and it comes from another star bla bla bla... Here you get actual astronomical data and scientific analysis. Well done PBS ;)

[BrendanBlake]

*Matt:* "It's not aliens. It's never, ever aliens."
*Inner Matt:* "OMFG IT MIGHT BE ALIENS!!! IT'S TOTALLY FRICKIN' ALIENS!!!"

[matthewheimbecker]

Many shows attempt to end every episode with their own title, or a tagline. Many fail to pull it off elegantly, but not Space Time. I'm always listening for it, and I'm always pleased at how it's worked in. Excellent writing.

[alukata]

It's never aliens, untill it's aliens ^^

[KarlBunker]

1I (one-eye) -- they should have nicknamed it "Leela."

[mtnx]

His facial expressions are even more mysterious than oumuamua.

[HurricaneOG]

Thanks for all these videos and the work that goes into them. Older ones, newer ones, they're all great. My favorite channel by far right now, fun way to get through work listening to these and free courses on Itunes U

[captainricco]

You have managed to capture my attention for about 6 minutes which is a world record, however, my ADD has taken control of my brain again and now I must surf a new wave. But thanks. You would make a great teacher if you had a curious class.

[auptyk]

...It was probably aliens launching rocks at us... but a rounding error causes it to miss. Hey... it happens.

[ericselectrons]

Title Fix: "The Origin of Our First *Detected* Interstellar Object | Space Time"

[komandant]

"It's not aliens, it's never aliens!"
Hahaha, silly humans

[amazingvidguyz]

If anyone has ever read or listened to "Rendezvous with Rama" , there are striking parallels !
It will probably turn out to be boring, but we live in hope !

[Nethershaw]

I think it's poetic that every episode is required to end with a prepositional phrase or a verbal direct object in order to give the signature closing to the script. The word that always owns the action of the final sentence, and the last word, is spacetime.

[LuisAldamiz]

"Uh, mamua!" in Basqe means "Wow, a ghost!"

I almost didn't click because I feared you'd speculate on extraterrestrial beings arriving somehow from somewhere. But it was a good thing I did finally click.

[PedroBittencourt]

I watch you guys since you had less than 100k views per video, I'm so happy to see you guys growning up and getting more recognition, I knew you guys would be giant one day. Please never stop with you great content, we need you guys. Cheers !

[harpodjangorose]

"It's never aliens"
Ha! That's just what an alien would say.

[buttcheek]

Or put a "space-tracking device" on it! Might be helpful in 10, 000 years.