Oumuamua: Alien asteroid discovered in Solar system

Scientists have discovered an asteroid named Oumuamua (or (514107) 2015 BZ509) nestling in Jupiter’s orbit that had migrated from another star system. It makes it first known permanent immigrant to our solar system. It   confirms suspicions of scientists’ that asteroids from other stars have arrived in our solar system. The asteroid Oumuamua was actually first discovered in 2014, but after four years of tracking it, scientists were able to determine that it had arrived in our solar system some 4.5 billion years ago – just as Earth was beginning to form.

Key Facts

All planets in our solar system travel around Sun. But this asteroid moves in opposite direction, referred to as retrograde orbit and is in same path as Jupiter. This shows that it is from different solar system. If it was native of our solar system, it might have same original direction as all of other planets and asteroids, inherited from cloud of gas and dust that formed them.
Asteroid immigration from other star systems occurs because Sun initially formed in tightly-packed star cluster, where every star had its own system of planets and asteroids. The close proximity of stars, aided by gravitational forces of planets, help these systems attract, remove and capture asteroids from one another solar system.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2018