Interstellar objects like cigarettes' Oumuamua is considered a comet

According to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, it turns out that the interstellar, mysterious cigarette-like object that flew over the solar system last year was actually a comet.

The flying object, named 'Oumuamua , in Hawaiian means ' messenger from far away' , was first discovered by researchers in 2017 with the Telescope Observation and Reflection System. Fast (Pan-STARRS), located in Maui. Since observing a strange shaped object, researchers are not exactly sure how to classify it: first they think it is a comet, then an asteroid, then astronomers Think it is simply an interstellar object .

Picture 1 of Interstellar objects like cigarettes' Oumuamua is considered a comet The flying object, named 'Oumuamua.

But now, thanks to the efforts of researchers led by the European Aviation Agency, 'Oumuamua is considered a comet, because it is not only guided by the gravity of the sun like a good planet. meteorite , the main author of the study, Marco Micheli, said.

Micheli told USA Today: 'Surprisingly, we have discovered that' Oumuamua does not decelerate as much as it should be because of gravity. We think this is a tiny, strange comet . we can see from the data that its intensity starts to get smaller as it gets farther away from the sun, which is very common with comets. This is definitely a very interesting finding '.

According to Micheli, after analyzing `Oumuamua's trajectory, the researchers confirmed that this 800m-long object was not pushed away on its journey by the gravitational attraction of the sun, like planets and any any other object in the Solar System.

According to Space.com, by sticking the comet onto this mysterious object, the researchers could better explain `Oumuamua's gravityless acceleration, because the comets were pushed away by the release. gas .

Although 'Oumuamua is not a typical comet, because it lacks a comet head - the cloud of gas and dust surrounding the comet - the unanswered mystery behind this object is now its source.