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They’re always coming through. The solar system is an interstellar highway. Chariots Of The Gods, man. But seriously, why would interstellar objects come tow

They’re always coming through. The solar system is an interstellar highway. Chariots Of The Gods, man. But seriously, why would interstellar objects come towards our solar system? It seems strange. Does gravity do that? If there’s two within ten years then there has to be a veritable swarm of these things traveling between the stars - is that right or wrong?

Jyaif 1y ago
A very rough calculation would suggested that the cylinder that goes from our solar system to Proxima Centauri contains 5000 similarly sized objects moving at the same speed: 1 object crossing the solar system plane every 5 years at 60km/s + Proxima Centauri is approximately 5 light years away => there are `speed of light / 60km/s` objects in the cylinder.
hermitcrab 1y ago
Objects can get flung out of solar systems when they pass close to large objects. Similar to how spacecraft get gravity assists.
alganet 1y ago
> But seriously, why would interstellar objects come towards our solar system? Why wouldn't they?
- coolspot 1y ago
  Because to go through plane like that they need to match our solar system speed relative to galaxy.
  - alganet 1y ago
    Universe is big and full of random small rocks floating around everywhere. Why should I believe some object was _intentionally_ thrown here? Maybe it is just one of those random rocks.
    - typeofhuman 1y ago
      > Floating around everywhere. Sorry to be pedantic. But space is really, really, really... empty. That's why the best name for it is, space.
      - alganet 1y ago
        You can go outside at night and see big rocks floating. If space is so empty, how is it possible that you can see them with your own eyes? We live in a patch of space that's not that empty. Maybe that interstellar rock floated from other patch of space that's not that empty all the way over here, all on its own. Most rocks we see in our patch of space, as far as we can possibly know, were not intentionally launched.
- andrewstuart 1y ago
  Because space is big. Really really big.
  - alganet 1y ago
    The ocean is big compared to a fish, but I can still find fish in it quite easily. There's nothing statistically weird about these interstellar objects.

Jyaif 1y ago

A very rough calculation would suggested that the cylinder that goes from our solar system to Proxima Centauri contains 5000 similarly sized objects moving at the same speed: 1 object crossing the solar system plane every 5 years at 60km/s + Proxima Centauri is approximately 5 light years away => there are `speed of light / 60km/s` objects in the cylinder.

hermitcrab 1y ago

Objects can get flung out of solar systems when they pass close to large objects. Similar to how spacecraft get gravity assists.

alganet 1y ago

> But seriously, why would interstellar objects come towards our solar system? Why wouldn't they?

coolspot 1y ago
Because to go through plane like that they need to match our solar system speed relative to galaxy.
- alganet 1y ago
  Universe is big and full of random small rocks floating around everywhere. Why should I believe some object was _intentionally_ thrown here? Maybe it is just one of those random rocks.
  - typeofhuman 1y ago
    > Floating around everywhere. Sorry to be pedantic. But space is really, really, really... empty. That's why the best name for it is, space.
    - alganet 1y ago
      You can go outside at night and see big rocks floating. If space is so empty, how is it possible that you can see them with your own eyes? We live in a patch of space that's not that empty. Maybe that interstellar rock floated from other patch of space that's not that empty all the way over here, all on its own. Most rocks we see in our patch of space, as far as we can possibly know, were not intentionally launched.
andrewstuart 1y ago
Because space is big. Really really big.
- alganet 1y ago
  The ocean is big compared to a fish, but I can still find fish in it quite easily. There's nothing statistically weird about these interstellar objects.