Oumuamua it is the first known interstellar visitor. Detected by a group of astronomers in 2017, they called it that, which means “first distant messenger” in the Hawaiian language. But a doubt remained, since he was leaving the Solar System when he was discovered, what was it? A fragment of an exoplanet, a comet or an alien spacecraft? Scientists suggest the lyra project to meet him.
This project seeks to build a spacecraft to chase Oumuamua, in order to reach its vicinity by the years 2050-2054.
Behind Lyra are the astronomers Adam Hibberd, Andreas Hein, Marshall Eubanks, and Robert Kennedy III (descendant of the famous presidential family?). They launched the study in January of this year, hoping that NASA or some other world agency would take it into account.
“Theories to explain the nature of Oumuamua have included a fractal dust aggregate, a hydrogen iceberg, an alien solar sail, fragments of a tidally disrupted planet, and so on”, indicates Lyra’s proposal. “All explanations have one thing in common: they are extraordinary.”
The Lyra project for the exploration of Oumuamua: this is how it would work
The Lyra project suggests launching a mission in February 2028, circling Earth, Venus and Jupiter twice and finally reaching Oumuamua between 2050 and 2054. The spacecraft would have to travel at 120,000-262,000 kilometers per hour, using traditional engines combined with flybys.
Experts consider that Oumuamua traveled at his best at almost 300 thousand kilometers per hour, although its average speed when leaving the Solar System was 95 thousand kilometers per hour.
For Lyra, it will be key to use the so-called Oberth’s maneuver around Jupiter, which implies approaching the planet to receive the impulse thanks to its atmosphere. Other scientists propose this maneuver but with the Sun, although the difficulty is greater, since it requires a solar shield to protect itself.
Is Oumuamua the only one of its kind to pass through our Solar System? Probably not, but it seems difficult to detect another of his style, although in 2019 it happened the so-called comet Borisov, another interstellar element.
It’s similar? It is not known.
That is why the researchers propose that the space object be searched to deepen its knowledge. “It’s not clear what the probability is of finding a similar object again,” Hibberd and colleagues note.