Interstellar Object Oumuamua: Is It a Jigsaw Piece of a Planet Or a Spaceship?

Scientists think the Interstellar Object Oumuamua is a larger piece of something significant that was part of something huge, torn apart by immense gravitation unimaginable.

This cigar-shaped object floating in the gravitational wells that sent it on a path directly to our solar system. Some even speculate that it can be more if there were no limitations of imaging technology on earth.

Oumuamua is the word for envoy in Hawaiian. It was first seen in 2017 and one that received much interest. Still, there are no answers for this extraterrestrial enigma which befuddles scientists a lot.

Is it a Comet? Or something else?

Another view is the gases were super-accelerated that it was like turbo-jets until the water vapor was gone, this is most seen with comet tails, not asteroids. Oumuamua might be a comet but there is no way of finding out conclusively.

There are speculations about the mystery of this space rock (?). Scientists might have the jigsaw pieces needed.

The first speculation, any guesses might be just the same

Oumuamua, an active asteroid riding the space-lanes that was part of a body, later torn apart by its binary partner. Its shot into our patch uncountable years and it traveled vast stellar space.

Call it pieces of rock that bunched up under extreme gravity and looking like a giant ball of rock before it broke apart. This huge body later was shattered by the gravity of a partner binary.

In the journal Nature Astronomy, Zhang and Prof Doug Lin of the University of California's Lick Observatory used computer simulations to visualize the process that created it and explain how and why it looks and moves.

Also read: Planet-Killing Asteroid Currently Hurdling Towards Earth, ETA Saturday Morning

Their conclusion is that gravity pulled hard on part of the larger body to make the elongated shape. Oumuamua is connected by surface material which melted close to the star, then froze in deep space.

It got its extreme speed from frozen water in the sub-surface layer that acts as jets in space.

It used to be part of a planet or a comet, though the surface water is better for the comet narrative. Also, the binary star it had before was like the or a white dwarf.

Zhang and the spaceship argument

His finding negates the starship argument on how asteroidal interstellar objects are formed that are based on his hypothesis.

It might be that objects like it that pass through habitable zones are like the solar system that can carry the seeds of life to other parts of the cosmos it goes.

Another scientist, Dr Alan Jackson, of Arizona State University, was not privy into the interstellar object Oumuamua and was interested to add his observations.

He added, "The idea of 'Oumuamua being a fragment of a larger body that was tidally disrupted by passing close to its parent star was suggested by Matija Ćuk in 2018." He further commented that the object has mysterious and interesting features to it.

It seems the interstellar object Oumuamua is attracting attention and move speculation until the means to see the object wore tools.