Karen J. Meech: The story of 'Oumuamua, the first visitor from another star system
קארן ג'. מיץ': הסיפור על אומואמואה, האורח הראשון ממערכת שמש אחרת
Karen J. Meech is an astronomer who investigates how habitable worlds form and explores the bigger picture of whether there is life elsewhere. Full bio
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for possible asteroid collision hazards,
סכנת התנגשות עם אסטרואידים.
is scanning the sky every night.
סורק את השמיים בכל לילה.
are examined by Pan-STARRS staff
על-ידי הצוות של Pan-STARRS
moving rapidly between the stars,
הנע במהירות בין הכוכבים,
measurements of position and speed
הרגילות של מיקום ומהירות
wasn't from our solar system.
astronomers are waiting for.
מערכת השמש מחכים לה.
an interstellar comet
since the 1970s,
from the nearest star system
מממערכת השמש הקרובה ביותר
entered our solar system
of the constellation Lyra,
on September 9th,
close approach or unusual distance.
או מרחק חריג במיוחד.
to see objects close by.
its closest approach to the Earth,
את ההתקרבות הכי גדולה לארץ,
by astronomical standards.
by its unwieldy catalog name,
that passed through the solar system
science fiction story in 1973.
של ארתור קלארק מ-1973.
by a telescope in Hawaii,
on Hawaiian culture --
from the distant past reaching out to us.
מהעבר הרחוק שמושיט לנו יד.
was important for many reasons,
is for what 'Oumuamua can tell us
מה שאומואמואה יכול לספר לנו
system and the growth of planets
חדשה והתפתחות כוכבי-הלכת
gets ejected from the new solar system
נפלטים ממערכת השמש החדשה
through the dusty disk
נודדים דרך דיסקת האבק
that a shiver runs up and down your spine?
עובר לאורך עמוד השדרה שלכם?
very emotionally moving?
from another solar system
חומר ממערכת שמש אחרת
קרוב שנוכל לצפות בה.
about 'Oumuamua,
from another star system?
and what you can have,
and fading very rapidly.
ולדעוך במהירות רבה.
by a factor of [10].
we were going to have
of getting telescope time --
של קביעת חלון-זמן הטלסקופ --
peer-reviewed proposal process
של הצעות שעוברות ביקורת מקצועית
competition for resources.
It was a fierce battle.
perfectly crafted proposal words
selfish point of view,
הדבר הראשון
is how massive 'Oumuamua is.
עד כמה מסיבי הוא אומואמואה.
it passed very close to the Earth,
מאוד קרוב לכדור-הארץ,
until afterwards.
had it not missed the Earth?
הוא לא היה מחטיא את הארץ?
of the velocity times its mass,
on how big it is and what it's made of.
and what's its shape?
think of comparing the brightness
on a distant airplane.
because it's so far away.
the surface of 'Oumuamua is,
it's very similar to small asteroids
דומה לאסטרואידים קטנים
of charcoal and wet sand.
are used in what's called a service mode,
מופעלים במה שנקרא תצורת שירות,
all the instructions
בקפדנות את כל ההוראות
for the data to come back,
it's cloudy last night.
אם היה אמש מעונן.
any second chances here.
'Oumuamua decided not to be.
אומואמואה החליט לא להיות כזה.
racing between the stars.
the telescope is following its motion.
fainter, brighter, and fainter again,
עמום יותר, זוהר יותר ואז שוב עמום,
of four sides of an oblong object.
מארבעת צדדיו של גוף מוארך.
conclusion about its shape.
very long and narrow,
this means it's about half a mile long.
פירוש הדבר שאורכו כ-800 מטר.
solar system looks like this.
that even have an axis ratio
in its home solar system.
היווצרותו במערכת השמש שלו.
every 7.34 hours,
to come in from other teams,
we learn about something,
is not rotating in a simple way.
אינו מסתובב באופן פשוט.
around its short axis,
of it being violently tossed
from its brightness
on how it's spinning,
what it may look like,
כיצד הוא עשוי להיראות,
by space artist Bill Hartmann,
מאת אמן החלל ביל הרטמן,
may be more of a flattened oval.
יותר שומה לאליפסה שטוחה.
to have a piece of 'Oumuamua
להשיג חתיכה מאומואמואה
so we could study it in detail.
כדי שנוכל לחקור אותה לעומק.
can't manage to launch
פרטיים אינם מסוגלים לשגר
on remote observations.
להסתמך על תצפיות מרחוק.
interacts with the surface.
האור מושפע מפני-השטח.
giving it a chemical fingerprint,
ויעניקו לו טביעת-אצבע כימית,
may just reflect more blue
עשויים להחזיר יותר אור כחול
it reflected more red light,
הוא החזיר יותר אור אדום,
rich surface of the comet recently visited
האורגניים של כוכב-השביט שזכה
has the same composition.
הוא בעל אותו הרכב.
tiny little bits of iron in the surface
פני-שטח המכילים טיפה ברזל
of Saturn's moon Iapetus,
from the Cassini spacecraft.
in other words, metal,
what's on the surface,
about what's on the inside.
that it must at least be strong enough
similar to that of rocky asteroids;
לאסטרואידים סלעיים;
I want to show you
color images that we got
it's not all that spectacular.
was not because of the images,
מהאבל לא היתה בתמונותיו,
our observations out
את יכולת הצפייה שלנו
from the discovery,
along the orbit,
צפייה לאורך המסלול,
where 'Oumuamua came from.
לדעת מהיכן אומואמואה הגיע.
a leftover archaeological remnant
of another planetary system,
that maybe 'Oumuamua formed
that was much denser than our own,
shredded planetary material
קילפו חומר כוכבי מוקדם
this is something that formed
it's a natural object,
that it's not something artificial.
שהוא אינו משהו מלאכותי.
the tumbling motion
this is alien technology,
שזו טכנולוגיה חוצנית,
and search for a radio signal?
ולחפש אותות רדיו?
the Breakthrough Listen project did,
ה"האזנה פורצת הדרך" עשה,
has remained completely quiet.
a spacecraft to 'Oumuamua
and expensive voyage,
would be very difficult.
has many more things to teach us,
הרבה דברים נוספים ללמד אותנו,
more surprises in store
continue to work with the data.
I think this visitor from afar
that our solar system isn't isolated.
שלנו אינה מבודדת.
be surrounded by interstellar visitors
באורחים בין-כוכביים
than its provided answers,
to a visitor from another solar system.
לאורח ממערכת שמש אחרת.
that talk very much. Thank you.
pretty late in its journey towards us.
די מאוחר במסעו אלינו.
the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
הטלסקופ הגדול לסריקה מהירה
we'll start to see a lot of these things,
לראות הרבה עצמים כאלה,
as it's approaching the Sun,
לגלות אחד שנע לכיוון השמש,
to do all the science,
you can chase it.
ניתן יהיה לרדוף אחריו.
Let's thank Karen again.
הבה נודה שוב לקארן.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Karen J. Meech - Astronomer, astrobiologistKaren J. Meech is an astronomer who investigates how habitable worlds form and explores the bigger picture of whether there is life elsewhere.
Why you should listen
Astrobiologist Karen J. Meech uses the leftover pieces from our solar system's formation to understand how habitable planets are made. Her curiosity about life beyond earth was inspired as a child watching Star Trek. From this, her path led to a career in physics and astronomy, with a PhD in planetary physics from MIT. She is now an astronomer at the University of Hawaii, where she leads the astrobiology group, and she is a passionate scientific educator.
Meech started her astronomical career investigating comets, the icy leftovers from the birth of our solar system. Her work led to an understanding of many of the processes that cause the beautiful tails to develop far from our Sun. She was co-investigator on three comet missions. Her discoveries provide information to test our understanding of how planetary systems are assembled. Now her work has embraced the power of interdisciplinary science, and she is combining geological field work, geochemistry, astronomical observations, theory and space mission concepts to address fundamental questions about how earth got its water.
Karen J. Meech | Speaker | TED.com