Karen J. Meech: The story of 'Oumuamua, the first visitor from another star system
凱倫 · J · 米區: 來自另一星系的首位訪客「斥侯星」的故事
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,
潛在小行星碰撞的危險,
is scanning the sky every night.
每晚都在掃描天空。
are examined by Pan-STARRS staff
會檢查候選的對象,
moving rapidly between the stars,
在恆星之間快速移動的物體,
measurements of position and speed
所測量出的位置和速度,
wasn't from our solar system.
astronomers are waiting for.
都在等待的電話。
an interstellar comet
穿過太陽系的星際彗星,
since the 1970s,
以來直到現在,
from the nearest star system
最近星系接收包裹
entered our solar system
of the constellation Lyra,
on September 9th,
close approach or unusual distance.
也不算非比尋常,
to see objects close by.
its closest approach to the Earth,
by astronomical standards.
by its unwieldy catalog name,
that passed through the solar system
1973 年的經典科幻小說裡
science fiction story in 1973.
by a telescope in Hawaii,
on Hawaiian culture --
from the distant past reaching out to us.
向我們伸手的偵察員或使者。
was important for many reasons,
is for what 'Oumuamua can tell us
system and the growth of planets
gets ejected from the new solar system
形成它們的塵埃盤時,
through the dusty disk
that a shiver runs up and down your spine?
讓你的脊椎上下顫抖?
very emotionally moving?
from another solar system
來自另一個太陽系的物質
about 'Oumuamua,
from another star system?
and what you can have,
and fading very rapidly.
by a factor of [10].
we were going to have
研究它的全部時間。
of getting telescope time --
取得使用望遠鏡的時間,
peer-reviewed proposal process
通常競爭激烈,
competition for resources.
It was a fierce battle.
這是一場激烈的戰鬥。
perfectly crafted proposal words
selfish point of view,
is how massive 'Oumuamua is.
it passed very close to the Earth,
until afterwards.
had it not missed the Earth?
速度的平方乘以質量,
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
of charcoal and wet sand.
are used in what's called a service mode,
採用所謂的服務模式,
all the instructions
for the data to come back,
it's cloudy last night.
any second chances here.
'Oumuamua decided not to be.
racing between the stars.
the telescope is following its motion.
因為望遠鏡追著斥侯星移動。
fainter, brighter, and fainter again,
變暗,變亮,又變暗。
of four sides of an oblong object.
conclusion about its shape.
very long and narrow,
this means it's about half a mile long.
意思是它大約半英里長。
solar system looks like this.
that even have an axis ratio
in its home solar system.
誕生過程中的一部分。
every 7.34 hours,
to come in from other teams,
we learn about something,
is not rotating in a simple way.
around its short axis,
of it being violently tossed
from its brightness
on how it's spinning,
what it may look like,
by space artist Bill Hartmann,
這幅美麗的畫作所示,
may be more of a flattened oval.
更可能是個扁平的橢圓形。
to have a piece of 'Oumuamua
帶塊斥侯星的碎片到實驗室,
so we could study it in detail.
can't manage to launch
on remote observations.
interacts with the surface.
光線如何與表面相互作用。
giving it a chemical fingerprint,
留下化學指紋,
may just reflect more blue
it reflected more red light,
rich surface of the comet recently visited
has the same composition.
東西,成分都相同。
tiny little bits of iron in the surface
of Saturn's moon Iapetus,
黑暗面正是如此,
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
它必須至少要夠堅固,
similar to that of rocky asteroids;
與岩石小行星的密度相似,
I want to show you
color images that we got
it's not all that spectacular.
也沒有更好的視野。
was not because of the images,
our observations out
from the discovery,
along the orbit,
where 'Oumuamua came from.
a leftover archaeological remnant
剩餘的考古遺跡,
of another planetary system,
that maybe 'Oumuamua formed
that was much denser than our own,
密度更大的恆星,
shredded planetary material
就弄碎了行星物質。
this is something that formed
在痛苦的死亡過程中形成的,
it's a natural object,
這是一個自然物體,
that it's not something artificial.
這不是人為的東西。
the tumbling motion
this is alien technology,
and search for a radio signal?
蒐索無線電信號呢?
the Breakthrough Listen project did,
has remained completely quiet.
a spacecraft to 'Oumuamua
and expensive voyage,
would be very difficult.
has many more things to teach us,
還有很多東西要教我們。
more surprises in store
繼續使用這些數據,
continue to work with the data.
I think this visitor from afar
that our solar system isn't isolated.
be surrounded by interstellar visitors
被星際訪客包圍著,
than its provided answers,
可能比帶來的答案還更多,
to a visitor from another solar system.
我當然非常喜歡這個話題。謝謝。
that talk very much. Thank you.
它行經我們的旅程後期才發現它。
pretty late in its journey towards us.
the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
we'll start to see a lot of these things,
之後會開始看到很多這類東西。
as it's approaching the Sun,
在它正接近太陽時找到它,
to do all the science,
做所有的科學研究。
準備好一艘太空船,
you can chase it.
就可以去追蹤它了。
Let's thank Karen again.
讓我們再次感謝凱倫。
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