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That's a trick of perspective. The estimated orbital elements [1] show an inclination of roughly 45 degrees between the object and the ecliptic. If you click th
by teraflop 7y ago
That's a trick of perspective. The estimated orbital elements [1] show an inclination of roughly 45 degrees between the object and the ecliptic. If you click the link in the tweet, you can rotate the model and see for yourself.
The orbital plane of the solar system is not aligned in any special orientation relative to nearby stars or the Milky Way, so we would expect interstellar objects to arrive from all directions with equal probability.
[1]: https://twitter.com/AscendingNode/status/1171845027099795456 https://twitter.com/AscendingNode/status/1171845027099795456
- healsjnr1 7y agoThanks, I was wondering if there was a perspective thing going on. But also thinking that the larger the angle to the ecliptic, the less likely it was something that just happened to be in a very large orbit around our solar system. From the discussion above though it sounds like the eccentricity tells us that anyway.