Cosmic Objects From Foreign Solar Systems Could Be Captured by Earth's Gravity, Stuck in Its Orbit, New Study Suggests

In a new study, astronomers were able to discover that renegade cosmic objects from foreign solar systems could end up getting captured by the Earth's gravity and stuck in its orbit for as long as millions of years.

Foreign Cosmic Objects Could Get Sucked Into Earth's Orbit

Live Science reports that objects that move into the Earth's solar system all the way from interstellar space could get stuck in the Earth's orbit around the sun due to closely passing through Jupiter. This was explained by Professor Avi Loeb from Harvard University. Professor Loeb adds that they are looking into the possibility of some of them getting caught and turning into Near-Earth Objects (NEOs).

The study is still on the arXiv preprint server. Live Science adds, however, that the majority of these stuck objects would be too tiny to pick up with current telescopes.

The team has dubbed these objects "interstellar interlopers." They think that such objects would have an icy rock form that were jettisoned from their host systems before migrating to the Earth's very own.

Professor Loeb and colleagues, however, do not disregard the possibility of these objects being made by smart aliens that may end up entering the Earth's solar system.

In the new study, the researchers examined if other interstellar objects could be caught by gravity and be forced to stay in the solar system. With numerical simulations, the researchers confirmed the possibility of Earth periodically capturing objects from interstellar space into its orbits. However, such effects are quite small compared to those of Jupiter, as it boasts an object-capturing efficiency that is a thousand times better than Earth's.

The researchers have also discovered that cosmic objects that the Earth's gravity catches would end up unstable and would survive around the Earth for a shorter period compared to that of known NEOs. Such objects would end up disturbed by interactions with the sun or other objects. They would then be hurdled out of the system.

Professor Loeb notes that the team did not theorize that interstellar objects move around the Earth. However, this is a possibility that astronomers should keep checking for.

The incoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory could help with such efforts. Professor Loeb explains that with computer simulations, they have discovered that some captured objects as big as a football field could be picked up by the said observatory, which will examine the southern sky every four days using a 3.2 billion pixel camera.

Professor Loeb adds that looking into interstellar objects surrounding the Earth may shed light on the formation of far and foreign solar systems.

Interstellar Objects

Since 2017, astronomers have been interested in interstellar visitors. This interest was sparked when the first space rock intruder, 'Oumuamua, was found.

According to NASA, the length of this space rock is a quarter of a mile, or 400 meters. This length is roughly 10 times its width, which makes it different from other native comets or asteroids.

After examining this unique rock, specialists inferred that it was wandering inside the galaxy and had not been linked to any solar system for several million years. This was before it coincidentally encountered Earth's own solar system.

The second known interstellar intruder is the Borisov comet, New Scientist reports. This comet of ice and dust is the size of the Eiffel Tower. It was found situated outside the parameters of the Earth's solar system back in 2019.

Both of these foreign cosmic objects are not moving towards the sun. This means that they will eventually leave the Earth's solar system.

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