Ideas change everything

The story of 'Oumuamua, the first visitor from another star system

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Karen J. Meech |

TED2018

• April 2018

In October 2017, astrobiologist Karen J. Meech got the call every astronomer waits for: NASA had spotted the very first visitor from another star system. The interstellar comet -- a half-mile-long object eventually named `Oumuamua, from the Hawaiian for "scout" or "messenger" -- raised intriguing questions: Was it a chunk of rocky debris from a new star system, shredded material from a supernova explosion, evidence of alien technology or something else altogether? In this riveting talk, Meech tells the story of how her team raced against the clock to find answers about this unexpected gift from afar.

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In October 2017, astrobiologist Karen J. Meech got the call every astronomer waits for: NASA had spotted the very first visitor from another star system. The interstellar comet -- a half-mile-long object eventually named `Oumuamua, from the Hawaiian for "scout" or "messenger" -- raised intriguing questions: Was it a chunk of rocky debris from a new star system, shredded material from a supernova explosion, evidence of alien technology or something else altogether? In this riveting talk, Meech tells the story of how her team raced against the clock to find answers about this unexpected gift from afar.

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

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About the speaker

Astronomer, astrobiologist

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Karen J. Meech is an astronomer who investigates how habitable worlds form and explores the bigger picture of whether there is life elsewhere.

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"Is 'Oumuamua an Interstellar Asteroid or Comet?"

Observatories including NASA's Hubble Space Telescope found that the interstellar object named 'Oumuamua gained an extra boost of speed, which likely comes from comet-like jets of gas.

RESEARCH ARTICLE

"Non-gravitational acceleration in the trajectory of 1I/2017 U1 ('Oumuamua)"

‘Oumuamua (1I/2017 U1) is the first known object of interstellar origin to have entered the Solar System on an unbound and hyperbolic trajectory with respect to the Sun1. Here, Karen J. Meech and her teamreport the detection, at 30σ significance, of non-gravitational acceleration in the motion of 'Oumuamua.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

Read our curation guidelines.

Karen J. Meech: The story of 'Oumuamua, the first visitor from another star system | TED Talk