English

Pole, Pericenter, and Nodes of the Interstellar Minor Body A/2017 U1

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2017-11-02 v1

Abstract

Here, we explore some peculiar orbital features of the recently discovered asteroid A/2017 U1, which is a clear outlier when considering the average value of the eccentricity of known hyperbolic comets. As for the orientation of its orbit in space, the orbital plane of A/2017 U1 seems to be away from any obvious clusters present for this population. The orbital nodes of A/2017 U1 are well away from the paths of the planets of the Solar System and the Sun. All these orbital properties appear to confirm A/2017 U1 as the first known interstellar asteroid.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1711.00445,
  title  = {Pole, Pericenter, and Nodes of the Interstellar Minor Body A/2017 U1},
  author = {C. de la Fuente Marcos and R. de la Fuente Marcos},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1711.00445},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

4 pages, 1 figure