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'Oumuamua shown to accelerate without visible outgassing

When
Telescope image of Oumuamua, a faint point of light among streaked stars
Oumuamua imaged in October 2017; in 2018 it was shown to be accelerating slightly Alan Fitzsimmons ( Astrophysics Research Centre , Queen's University Belfast ), Isaac Newton..., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A team led by Marco Micheli reported in Nature that 'Oumuamua was moving slightly faster than gravity alone predicted. The authors favoured comet-like outgassing as the cause even though no gas or dust was seen, and the result later fed speculation that the object was artificial.

Sources

  1. OfficialOur Solar System's First Known Interstellar Object Gets Unexpected Speed BoostNASA / 2018-06-27
  2. OfficialHubble sees 'Oumuamua getting a boost (heic1813)ESA/Hubble / 2018-06-27
  3. OtherNon-gravitational acceleration in the trajectory of 1I/2017 U1 ('Oumuamua)Nature / 2018-06-27

How sources are chosen and tiered

How the story came out

Happened 27 Jun 2018. First made public 5 years later (22 Mar 2023).

This reports on Pan-STARRS discovers 1I/'Oumuamua, first known interstellar object (19 Oct 2017).

  1. 27 Jun 2018It happened (this event)
  2. 22 Mar 2023Study attributes 'Oumuamua's push to escaping hydrogen - first made public

See it on the timeline: happened vs became public

Where it fits

See it on the timelineMore in Government