In 2017, the Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Hawaii discovered a small faint object, and researchers quickly realized that the small object appeared to be orbiting a hyperbola, meaning that it may not be orbiting the sun, but coming from outside the solar system.
The discovery quickly attracted a lot of attention, and after careful analysis, scientists confirmed that the small object was indeed from outside the solar system, and it became the first "interstellar visitor" from outside the solar system discovered by humans, so people named it Oumuamua, which means "messenger from afar" in Hawaiian.
In subsequent research, scientists were surprised to find that the shape of Omomo is very peculiar, it is presented as a cigar-like shape as a whole, its length is about 400 meters, but the width is only about 40 meters, and the aspect ratio is as high as 10 to 1, and such an outrageous aspect ratio has never been seen before, you must know that in all the known small celestial bodies found before, their aspect ratio has never exceeded 3 to 1.
In addition, the color of Omomo is also very special, it shows a reddish color, scientists believe that the reason for this may be because it is composed of dense metal-rich substance, which turns red after a long period of cosmic ray irradiation, or it may be due to the fact that its surface is covered with a layer of organic material, and after a long period of cosmic ray irradiation, a chemical change occurs, forming a red shell.
(↑ Ao Momo Imagination Map)
What is even more surprising is the trajectory of Omomo, scientists found that Omomo came from the direction of the constellation Lyra, it flew to the central region of the solar system along a trajectory almost perpendicular to the ecliptic plane of the solar system, and after passing perihelion, its trajectory was significantly bent under the action of solar gravity, and then "turned around" and went in the direction of Pegasus.
Theoretically, the sun's gravitational pull will slow down as Omomo moves away from the sun, but strangely, when Omomo moves away from the sun, it does not slow down as expected, but instead accelerates significantly, as if it is "slamming on the accelerator". Since Omomo's velocity exceeds the Sun's escape velocity, it is destined to leave the solar system in the future, if nothing else.
(↑ The red trajectory is the normal trajectory that conforms to the theory, and the blue trajectory is the actual running trajectory of Omomo, and the two appear in a huge deviation)
Why did Omomo, who is leaving the solar system, "slam on the accelerator"? In fact, scientists are also puzzled by this, because from a natural point of view, it is difficult to explain it reasonably.
Scientists initially speculated that Omomo may contain large amounts of ice frozen by volatiles, which sublimate when approaching the Sun, releasing large amounts of gases and dust that may provide additional power to Omomo. However, if this is the case, then Omomo will drag a long "comet tail" like a comet, but in actual observations, no such situation has been found.
So scientists put a "patch" on the basis of this speculation, that is, Omomo may have originated in the core region of the interstellar molecular cloud, and therefore contains a large amount of hydrogen ice, in this case, when it approaches the sun, the gas released is mainly hydrogen, and does not produce a large amount of dust, and the hydrogen formed by this process is difficult to detect with the Earth telescope, because the atmosphere blocks the wavelength of these lights.
But the problem is that observations based on light curves show that Omomo is actually spinning and tumbling in space, which means that even if Omomo will release a large amount of hydrogen, because the direction of acceleration provided by these gases is constantly changing, Omomo will not be able to continue to accelerate in a specific direction, which is obviously inconsistent with the actual observations.
It is difficult to explain from a natural point of view, but of course it will be reminiscent of extraterrestrial civilizations, for example, Avi Loeb, an astrophysicist at Harvard University, who published a paper saying that Omomo is likely to be a probe or spaceship from an extraterrestrial civilization. While this is a good explanation for why Omomo "slammed on the gas", his argument was not universally accepted by the scientific community due to a lack of sufficient evidence.
As it stands, Omomo is still moving away from us and will never look back, and it is conceivable that with the passage of time, it will eventually leave the solar system, and for us humans, until we develop the technology to catch up with it, Omomo's true identity may remain an unsolved mystery.