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ʻOumuamua
Oumuamua is the first confirmed interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System. Naming of comets#Current system, Formally designated 1I/2017 U1, it was discovered by Robert Weryk using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakalā Observatory, Hawaii, on 19 October 2017, approximately 40 days after it passed its Apsis#Perihelion and aphelion, closest point to the Sun on 9 September. When it was first observed, it was about 33 million km (21 million mi; 0.22 Astronomical unit, AU) from Earth (about 85 times as far away as the Moon) and already heading away from the Sun. Oumuamua is a small object estimated to be between long, with its width and thickness both estimated between . It has a red color, like objects in the outer Solar System. Despite its close approach to the Sun, it showed no signs of having a Coma (comet), coma, the usual nebula around comets formed when they pass near the Sun. Further, it exhibited Gravitational acceleration, nongravitational accelera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interstellar Object
An interstellar object is an astronomical object in interstellar space that is not gravitationally bound to a star. Applicable objects include asteroids, comets, and rogue planets, but not a star or stellar remnant. This term can also be applied to an object that is on an interstellar trajectory but is temporarily passing close to a star, such as certain asteroids and comets (that is, exoasteroids and exocomets). In the latter case, the object may be called an interstellar interloper. The first interstellar objects discovered were rogue planets, planets ejected from their original stellar system (e.g., OTS 44 or Cha 110913−773444), though they are difficult to distinguish from sub-brown dwarfs, planet-mass objects that formed in interstellar space as stars do. The first interstellar object which was discovered traveling through the Solar System was ʻOumuamua, 1I/ʻOumuamua in 2017. The second was 2I/Borisov in 2019. They both possess significant Hyperbolic trajectory#Semi-m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyperbolic Asteroid
A hyperbolic asteroid is any sort of asteroid or non-cometary astronomical object observed to have an orbit not bound to the Sun and will have an orbital eccentricity greater than 1 when near perihelion. Unlike hyperbolic comets, they have not been seen out-gassing light elements, and therefore have no cometary coma. Most of these objects will only be weakly hyperbolic and will not be of interstellar origin. Orbit explanation The planets and most satellites of the Solar System revolve in an almost circular motion – called an elliptical orbit – around the Sun or their parent planet, so their orbital eccentricity is generally much closer to 0 than to 1. In mathematics, by definition, an eccentricity (''e'') of 1 characterizes a parabola, and ''e'' > 1, a hyperbola. Some comets are on parabolic and hyperbolic orbits. This means that these hyperbolic asteroids all have an orbital eccentricity greater than 1. Known hyperbolic asteroids So far most hyperbolic asteroids disc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Weryk
Robert J. Weryk (born 1981) is a Canadian physicist and astronomer. He currently works at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where he discovered the first known interstellar object, ʻOumuamua Oumuamua is the first confirmed interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System. Naming of comets#Current system, Formally designated 1I/2017 U1, it was discovered by Robert Weryk using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakalā O .... He has also published numerous articles on meteors and other astronomical topics. References 1981 births Living people 21st-century Canadian astronomers Canadian physicists University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa faculty {{astronomer-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pan-STARRS
The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS1; List of observatory codes, obs. code: IAU code#F51, F51 and Pan-STARRS2 obs. code: IAU code#F52, F52) located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, US, consists of astronomical cameras, telescopes and a computing facility that is Astronomical survey, surveying the sky for moving or variable objects on a continual basis, and also producing accurate astrometry and photometry (astronomy), photometry of already-detected objects. In January 2019 the second Pan-STARRS data release was announced. At 1.6 petabytes, it is the largest volume of astronomical data ever released. Description The Pan-STARRS Project is a collaboration between the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy (Hawaii), Institute for Astronomy, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, MHPCC#Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC), Maui High Performance Computing Center and Science Applications International Corporation. Telescope construction was funde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naming Of Comets
Comets have been observed for over 2,000 years. During that time, several different systems have been used to assign names to each comet, and as a result many comets have more than one name. The simplest system names comets after the year in which they were observed (e.g. the Great Comet of 1680). Later a convention arose of using the names of people associated with the discovery (e.g. Comet Hale–Bopp) or the first detailed study (e.g. Halley's Comet) of each comet. During the twentieth century, improvements in technology and dedicated searches led to a massive increase in the number of comet discoveries, which led to the creation of a numeric designation scheme. The original scheme assigned codes in the order that comets passed perihelion (e.g. Comet 1970 II). This scheme operated until 1994, when continued increases in the numbers of comets found each year resulted in the creation of a new scheme. This system, which is still in operation, assigns a code based on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Herschel Telescope
The William Herschel Telescope (WHT) is a optical and near-infrared reflecting telescope located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain. The telescope, which is named after William Herschel, the discoverer of the planet Uranus, is part of the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes. It is funded by research councils from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain. At the time of construction in 1987, the WHT was the third largest single optical telescope in the world.The BTA-6 (6.0 m) and Hale Telescope (5.1 m) were both larger; the Multiple Mirror Telescope also had a larger collecting area but did not have a single primary mirror It is currently the second largest in Europe,The neighbouring Gran Telescopio Canarias (10.4 m) overtook the WHT in 2009 to become the largest in Europe and was the last telescope constructed by Grubb Parsons in their 150-year history. The WHT is equipped with a wide range of i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Outer Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar System" and "solar system" structures in theinaming guidelines document. The name is commonly rendered in lower case ('solar system'), as, for example, in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' an''Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary''. is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it. It formed about 4.6 billion years ago when a dense region of a molecular cloud collapsed, forming the Sun and a protoplanetary disc. The Sun is a typical star that maintains a balanced equilibrium by the fusion of hydrogen into helium at its core, releasing this energy from its outer photosphere. Astronomers classify it as a G-type main-sequence star. The largest objects that orbit the Sun are the eight planets. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state in the tropics. Hawaii consists of 137 volcanic islands that comprise almost the entire Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian archipelago (the exception, which is outside the state, is Midway Atoll). Spanning , the state is Physical geography, physiographically and Ethnology, ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania. Hawaii's ocean coastline is consequently the List of U.S. states and territories by coastline, fourth-longest in the U.S., at about . The eight main islands, from northwest to southeast, are Niihau, Niihau, Kauai, Kauai, Oahu, Oahu, Molokai, Molokai, Lanai, Lānai, Kahoʻolawe, Kahoolawe, Maui, and Hawaii (island), Hawaii, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apsis
An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. The line of apsides (also called apse line, or major axis of the orbit) is the line connecting the two extreme values. Apsides pertaining to orbits around different bodies have distinct names to differentiate themselves from other apsides. Apsides pertaining to geocentric orbits, orbits around the Earth, are at the farthest point called the ''apogee'', and at the nearest point the ''perigee'', like with orbits of satellites and the Moon around Earth. Apsides pertaining to orbits around the Sun are named ''aphelion'' for the farthest and ''perihelion'' for the nearest point in a heliocentric orbit. Earth's two apsides are the farthest point, ''aphelion'', and the nearest point, ''perihelion'', of its orbit around the host Sun. The terms ''aphelion'' and ''perihelion'' apply in the same way to the orbits of Jupiter and the other planets, the comets, and the asteroids of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astronomical Unit
The astronomical unit (symbol: au or AU) is a unit of length defined to be exactly equal to . Historically, the astronomical unit was conceived as the average Earth-Sun distance (the average of Earth's aphelion and perihelion), before its modern redefinition in 2012. The astronomical unit is used primarily for measuring distances within the Solar System or around other stars. It is also a fundamental component in the definition of another unit of astronomical length, the parsec. One au is approximately equivalent to 499 light-seconds. History of symbol usage A variety of unit symbols and abbreviations have been in use for the astronomical unit. In a 1976 resolution, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) had used the symbol ''A'' to denote a length equal to the astronomical unit. In the astronomical literature, the symbol AU is common. In 2006, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) had recommended ua as the symbol for the unit, from the French ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Outgassing
Outgassing (sometimes called offgassing, particularly when in reference to indoor air quality) is the release of a gas that was dissolved, trapped, frozen, or absorbed in some material. Outgassing can include sublimation and evaporation (which are phase transitions of a substance into a gas), as well as desorption, seepage from cracks or internal volumes, and gaseous products of slow chemical reactions. Boiling is generally thought of as a separate phenomenon from outgassing because it consists of a phase transition of a liquid into a vapor of the same substance. In a vacuum Outgassing is a challenge to creating and maintaining clean high- vacuum environments. NASA and ESA maintain lists of materials with low-outgassing properties suitable for use in spacecraft, as outgassing products can condense onto optical elements, thermal radiators, or solar cells and obscure them. Materials not normally considered absorbent can release enough lightweight molecules to interfere wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
