Will the Oumuamua puzzle ever end?

The mystery of ‘Oumuamua’, the first interstellar object seen in our solar system, seems to have no end. In fact, since its first observation in 2017, the cigar-like intruder has never ceased to stir controversy over its origins and nature.

He presented astronomers with himself navigating through the solar system, in a segmental path that led him to exit at a speed of 92,000 km / h. It was particularly noted that ‘Oumuamua also exhibited a very high acceleration which cannot be explained by the gravity of the Sun. With no other visual evidence, subsequent hypotheses and refutations about its engine followed.

First name KiteAnd hydrogen icebergAnd or even alien spaceshipLooks like the long speech ended in March when a job The University of Arizona has argued that Oumuamua could be a “nitrogen iceberg” – a piece of ice that broke off from a Pluto-like planet in another solar system.

The theory that would solve the mystery of invisible propulsion: Nitrogen ice, in fact, its vaporization into the Sun would propel the object while remaining invisible to telescopes. The same would also explain the unusual shape of ‘Oumuamua, which became long and flat like a bar of soap precisely because of the evaporation of the outside ice.

but one last post Harvard University has now rejected this latter explanation as well, in objection to the fact that pure nitrogen is so rare that it makes up only 0.5% of Pluto’s total mass. There wouldn’t be enough nitrogen in the universe to create a body like ‘Oumuamua.

According to Harvard University, it would be necessary, in fact, that the mass of Pluto equal to 60 times the mass of a star is necessary for the generation of all the planets of our solar system. Harward considered an absurd overestimate, due, according to the Arizona researchers, to the need to maintain a large margin of error due to the only available observation of interstellar objects.

Featured image: ‘Oumuamua (ESO credits)