Scientists want to build ‘interstellar interceptor’ to play hide-and-seek with next ‘Oumuamua
Scientists want to build ‘interstellar interceptor’ to play hide-and-seek with next ‘Oumuamua
(opens in new tab)
A team of scientists has proposed building an “interstellar interceptor,” a spacecraft capable of getting up close and personal to the next asteroid or comet that enters the solar system.
So far, astronomers have spotted two such objects whizzing through our star system: The puerile interstellar visitor ‘Oumuamua, which was first spotted in October 2017 and made headlines as alleged alien probeand comet 2I/Borisov, which astronomers first spotted in August 2019.
Sending a probe to study interstellar objects will allow astronomers to image the surfaces of space rocks more precisely and potentially even sample gases that seep from a comet interlopers like 2I/Borisov. However, by the time telescopes detect such interstellar objects, it is too late to design, build and launch a spacecraft to chase them, so these travelers end up sailing through our star system, taking most of their secrets with them. when they leave.
To circumvent this problem, the researchers drafted and submitted a proposal to arXiv preprint database (opens in new tab) on November 3. Their study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, suggests that a space agency like NASA should build and launch an interstellar interceptor that can wait patiently in distantThe Earth orbit. Then, once astronomers detect an approaching interstellar object, the probe can quickly take off to intercept the invader on its way through the solar system.
The best place to store an interstellar interceptor in space would be one of Earth’s Lagrange points, the researchers suggested. At these points in space, the gravitational attraction of two large masses, in this case the Earth and the sun, roughly cancel each other out, allowing small objects such as satellites or asteroids to remain relatively fixed in one position, according to NASA (opens in new tab).
The team has identified the L2 Lagrange point, which is also home to NASA James Webb Space Telescopeas the best place to park the spacecraft because it will allow the probe to intercept a wide range of potential trajectories that alien space rocks could take through our space neighbor.
The proposed interstellar interceptor would wait in low-power mode — possibly for decades — until a suitable candidate was found, at which point scientists could send the probe to the best possible location to intercept the intruder.
But we may not have to wait so long for the next visitor to call.
(opens in new tab)
Astronomers already suspect that numerous interstellar objects pass unnoticed through the solar system each year. The construction of new modern telescopes such as Vera C. Rubin Observatory (opens in new tab) in Chile, which is expected to be fully operational in early 2024, will allow scientists to spot more of these objects than ever before.
The authors of the new study predict that when Chile’s new observatory is fully operational, it will detect between one and 10 interstellar objects each year. The researchers therefore concluded that there is a 95% chance that an Oumuamua-like interloper would be detected and studied by a potential interstellar interceptor within the next decade.
Connected: Interstellar interloper 2I/Borisov may be the most pristine comet ever observed
Now is the perfect time to build an interstellar interceptor, researchers say, because it can be launched and installed in orbit while we have the capacity to spot more interstellar objects.
This is not the first time that researchers have drawn up plans to track such visitors to the solar system.
In February, a separate group of researchers proposed that by slinging a spacecraft around Earth, Venus and then Jupiter, scientists could launch a probe, catch up and meet ‘Oumuamua in the outer parts of the solar system, known as the Oort cloud, which extends up to 100,000 times farther from the sun than Earth, according to NASA (opens in new tab). However, for this to work, the proposed mission must be launched by 2028, otherwise the mysterious object will be beyond our reach forever.
