Illustrative image of an asteroid in space.

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JPL-Caltech / NASA / SIPA

Since its passage in 2017, the interstellar object called Oumuamua (messenger in Hawaiian) has generated many hypotheses about its nature.

While some researchers have estimated that it could be an alien spacecraft, a new study from the University of Arizona reveals that it is instead a fragment of a planet in another solar system, reports the

HuffPost

citing the scientific journal Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

"We have probably solved the mystery of what Ouamuamua is, we can reasonably argue that it is a fragment of an exo-Pluto, that is to say a Pluto-like planet located in a other solar system, ”explained study astrophysicist Steven Desch.

An origin that dates back half a billion years

According to the researchers, this interstellar object found its origin half a billion years ago.

Indeed, they put forward the hypothesis that a space object could have struck the planet from which Oumuamua came, which would have resulted in projecting it towards our solar system.

The particular form of Ouamuamua would be related to its composition of nitrogen in the state of ice which began to vaporize at the approach of our sun.

"As the outer layers of nitrogen ice evaporated, the shape of Oumuamua gradually flattened, much like a soap whose outer layers would wear out as it was used," he said. said Alan Jackson, another co-author of the study.



All of this information allowed the researchers to sweep aside the extraterrestrial hypothesis.

“It was inevitable that for the first space object to come from outside the solar system, people thought of aliens.

But it is important in science not to draw conclusions too quickly ”concluded Steven Desh.

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