Interstellar objects in the solar system can be very common

Comet 2I/Borisov, observed in 2019, was the second officially documented interstellar object. Scientists believe, however, that there could be more of these types of visitors – as many as 100 trillion of them waiting in the outskirts of the solar system.

The outskirts of the solar system can be visited regularly by interstellar visitors, Amir Siraj and Avi Loeb of the Harvard Center for Astrophysics say. Many of them are part of the so-called Oort Cloud Where can be Up to 100 trillion elements.

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Findings about this are available on the llama Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society It indicates that the number of interstellar objects in the Oort cloud exceeds the number of objects in the solar system.

Two interstellar objects have been discovered so far, but there are definitely more

Prior to the discovery of the first interstellar comet, we had no idea how many interstellar bodies were in the Solar System, but the theory behind the formation of planetary systems suggests that there should be fewer visitors than permanent residents. Now we find that there can be more visitors.

Amir Siraj

The Oort Cloud is really huge, extending between 300 and 100,000 AU from the Sun. Besides, their bodies do not emit light, which makes it difficult to observe them.

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Avi Loeb, co-author of the study and author of the famous ‘Oumuamua origin hypothesis, adds that while interstellar objects in the solar system’s planet region are relatively rare, the opposite is the case near the ocean – far from our star. These words can be confirmed or denied by data collected using the next generation new telescopes.

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