For billions of years, it lived in our solar system without us even knowing it was there. But this object couldn't remain hidden around Jupiter forever. It was just peculiar enough to be noticed by researchers. In 2017, the first observed interstellar visitor, an asteroid named 'Oumuamua, was found traveling through our solar system.
Now, for the first time,
astronomers have discovered a permanent resident that moved in during the early
stages of our solar system's development, about 4.5 billion years ago. The
researchers call this exo-asteroid, known as 2015 BZ509, an "interstellar
immigrant." It's known as an exo-asteroid because it originated outside
our solar system.
The latest research of the
object was published Monday in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Society: Letters. Like 'Oumuamua, the exo-asteroid was spotted by the
Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii. And its orbit was the main reason researchers
noticed it.
"The object was the
first observational example of the type of orbits we were studying and we
wanted to understand what was its origin," Helena Morais, study author and
professor of statistics at Sao Paulo State University in Brazil, said in an
email.
At first glance, 2015 BZ509
is just one of many objects orbiting the gas giant Jupiter in a stable
configuration called a resonance. Though all of the planets and most of the
objects in our solar system orbit the sun by moving in the same direction, the
exo-asteroid is going its own way. 2015 BZ509 moves in the opposite direction
in a retrograde orbit.
"The asteroid and
Jupiter take the same amount of time to complete one orbit around the Sun but
one moves clockwise and the other counter-clockwise so they pass by each other
twice per each full orbit," Morais wrote. "This pattern is repeated
forever -- it is a stable configuration -- in a simplified model with only the
Sun, Jupiter and the asteroid. We saw that when we include the other planets it
is still very stable, over the solar system's age."
That orbit is the same path
the object has always followed, meaning it could not have formed in our solar
system. If it were "native" to our solar system, it would have
inherited the direction from the gas and dust that formed all of the other
planets and objects. But how did it get here in the first place?
"Stars form in packed
groups called stellar nurseries and then later disperse as they move around the
galaxy center," Morais said. "Stars in these nurseries are so close
to each other that they can exchange material amongst them by mutual
gravitational interactions. Capture of 2015 BZ509 must have happened in the
early stages of the solar system, about 4.5 billion years ago."
The exo-asteroid serves as a
warning for objects like 'Oumuamua that may enter our solar system.
"'Oumuamua is a visitor
to the solar system," Morais said. "That was a nice and important
confirmation that interstellar objects can pass by. If they pass by then they
may also be captured in a stable orbit as it is the case of 2015 BZ509."
'Oumuamua loosely means
"a messenger that reaches out from the distant past." 2015 BZ509 will
have to wait on a catchy name; asteroids are named by the International
Astronomical Union.
Ground- and space-based
telescopes, like Hubble and Spitzer, are continuing to track 'Oumuamua for as
long as they can. 'Oumuamua will pass Jupiter in May, go beyond Saturn's orbit
in January and then leave our solar system, bound for the Pegasus
constellation. It is not expected to be captured and take up residence in our
solar system.
Morais said researchers
would be able to learn more about 2015 BZ509's parent star if they could
observe the exo-asteroid and identify its composition.
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