'Light-curve observations indicate that the object has an extreme oblong shape, with a 10:1 axis ratio and a mean radius of 102±4 m,'
'Since its discovery ‘Oumuamua has faded from view. The object’s rapidly increasing distance from the Earth and Sun now makes it too faint to be studied by even the largest telescopes.
“Needless to say, we dropped everything so we could quickly point the Gemini telescopes at this object immediately after its discovery,” said Gemini Director Laura Ferrarese who coordinated the Gemini South observations for Meech’s group.
“What we found was a rapidly rotating object, at least the size of a football field, that changed in brightness quite dramatically,” according to Meech. “This change in brightness hints that ‘Oumuamua could be more than 10 times longer than it is wide – something which has never been seen in our own Solar System,” according to Meech.
‘Oumuamua shares similarities with small objects in the outer Solar System, especially the distant worlds of the Kuiper Belt – a region of rocky, frigid worlds far beyond Neptune. “While study of ‘Oumuamua’s colors shows that this body shares characteristics with both Kuiper Belt objects and organic-rich comets and trojan asteroids,” says Meech, “its orbital path says it comes from far beyond.”
|