Vera Rubin Will Find Many More Interstellar Objects - by briankoberlein
Most of the comets we see in the sky were born in our solar system. They may have formed deep within the Oort cloud, and for some, it is their first visit to the inner solar system, but they are distinctly children of the Sun. We know of only two objects that came from beyond our solar system, Omuamua and Borisov. There are likely other interstellar objects visiting our solar system, we just haven’t found them. But that’s likely to change when Rubin Observatory comes online.
One of the things we know about stellar systems is that they can toss debris into interstellar space. Planetary orbits can shift dramatically during the early period of a system, and near misses between asteroids and even planets can give them enough kinetic energy to escape their star’s gravitational pull. We have discovered several rogue planets, and smaller bodies such as asteroids and comets can escape more easily. So there are plenty of interstellar bodies drifting through the galaxy.
But how many of these interstellar bodies visit our solar system? Oumuamua and Borisov were only discovered by chance because they passed within the inner solar system. Oumuamua had a maximum magnitude of 19, while Borisov was even brighter with a magnitude of 15. And it was only through a series of observations that we could determine their interstellar trajectories. Given random statistics, interstellar bodies are more likely to be found in the outer region of our solar system.
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