What Goes Up Might Not Come Down! Gravity, Orbits, and an Interstellar Visitor
Dr. Keith Davis
Director, Digital Visualization Theater
University of Notre Dame
In the fall of 2017, a rocky visitor was discovered passing through our Solar System. ‘Oumuamua is the first asteroid we’ve discovered from outside our own planetary system, and it won’t stick around. It’s currently on a path that will take it beyond the Solar System forever. With barely any other information than its trajectory, astronomers declared it an “interstellar” object – but how did they know?
Join us as Dr. Keith Davis takes us through a discussion of the orbits, gravity, and how a few simple measurements can convince us that ‘Oumuamua is from beyond the edges of our own Solar System.