Over 10 lakh interstellar objects the size of the Statue of Liberty are drifting unseen in the fringes of our solar system, a new yet-to-be peer-reviewed study has stated. Though unlikely to come in close contact with Earth, these cosmic nomads have travelled from our nearest stellar neighbours and may have been captured from other star systems through gravitational interactions.
The study, uploaded on arXiv, involved researchers running simulations about how much interstellar material was ejected our way from Alpha Centauri, our closest stellar star system. The simulations showed that over 10 lakh macroscopic objects, each wider than 100 metres were moving surreptitiously outside our cosmic backyard.
Notably, the entire Alpha Centauri star system is moving towards us at a rapid pace and will reach the closest point to the Sun in approximately 28,000 years. Scientists say the number of alien objects entering our solar system will also increase exponentially then.
One of the notable examples of an interstellar visitor paying us a visit was ‘Oumuamua’. Discovered in 2017, it was the first known object to enter our solar system from interstellar space. Its discovery prompted scientists to look for more such objects, leading to the identification of Comet Borisov in 2019, another interstellar visitor.
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Asteroid 2024 YR4
While unidentified interstellar objects roam around, scientists are keeping a close eye on asteroid 2024 YR4 whose chances of colliding with Earth have increased substantially in recent weeks. The asteroid was first spotted in late December by scientists at the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System station in Chile.
At the time, the space rock was given a 1.3 per cent chance of collision with Earth which was nearly doubled to 2.3 per cent, within the space of a week. The asteroid, measuring around 130 to 300 feet across, may not be big enough to cause a civilization collapse upon the impact but it is big enough to inflict major damage to a big city.
Scientists say that there have been several objects in the past that have risen on the risk list and eventually dropped off as more data have come in. New observations may result in the reassignment of this asteroid to zero as more data is analysed.