Oumuamua may be a hydrogen iceberg

Re:Oumuamua may be a hydrogen iceberg by wahern on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @04:22PM (#23408171)

‘Oumuamua's incoming and outgoing speed is ~5AU/year. In 10,000 years that's 50,000AU, which is approximately the distance to the outer most region of the Oort Cloud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oort_cloud

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Oumuamua may be a hydrogen iceberg by lgl on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @05:52PM (#23409287)

I always thought the Oort cloud was a scientifically proven thing but apparently it's "a theoretical cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals proposed to surround the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 au (0.03 to 3.2 light-years)"

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Oumuamua may be a hydrogen iceberg by divbzero on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @06:57PM (#23409977)

Thanks for correcting my similar misimpression.

It’s curious to note that the proposed outer limit of the Oort cloud (3.2 ly) is more than half the distance to the closest star system (4.4 ly) [1] though I’m unclear whether the cloud would be roughly spherical or have some sort of directionality.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centauri

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Oumuamua may be a hydrogen iceberg by messe on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @06:44PM (#23409846)

Too faint to be proven with our current instruments.

[ Parent | on HN ]