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Science Quickly

Science Has New Ideas about 'Oumuamua's Weirdness

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2023

⏱️ 5 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Our first known interstellar visitor is now long gone, but new research has some ideas about why it moved the way it did while it was in our cosmic neighborhood. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.j.j.p. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T-C-O-J-P.

0:28.4

When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacult.

0:34.5

Hey there, and welcome to Cosmos Quickly. This is Lee Billings.

0:38.2

Today, we're talking about the curious case of Omuamua,

0:41.9

which became the first known interstellar visitor to our solar system

0:45.0

when it swooped by Earth and around the sun back in October of 2017.

0:49.7

I'm joined by our news reporter Megan Bartels,

0:51.7

who just wrote a story on a fresh study about this mysterious object and talked to one of the researchers behind it.

0:58.2

Hi, Megan.

0:59.4

Hi, Lee. Happy to be here.

1:01.4

So, Omuamua dropped in on all of us more than five years ago, and it didn't really hang around.

1:07.1

After slingshotting around the sun, it soared back on a trajectory to interstellar space.

1:11.8

Astronomers barely got a chance to study it.

1:13.8

It's long gone.

1:15.6

Why are we still talking about it?

1:17.6

Well, Umuamua was really weird.

1:20.7

Astronomers weren't sure if it was an asteroid or a comet, and it was strangely shaped, long and thin like a cigar or maybe flat and thin like a pancake.

1:29.9

And it seemed to speed up on its outward journey in a way scientists struggled to explain.

1:34.7

Hold on, pump the brakes. Speed up?

...

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