The first body to fly to the Sun from another star could have formed in a distant binary system.
The end of 2017 was marked by unexpected luck for astronomers. It was found that the object seen in the inner regions of the solar system, which at first attracted attention with its strange trajectory and high speed, flew towards us from the system of another star. And although object 1I / Oumuamua managed to retire before there was a chance to study its physical characteristics, it became the first interstellar object recorded in the solar system. However, there will still be chances: according to current estimates, thousands of such bodies visit us every year.
Alan Jackson and his colleagues from the University of Scarborough (Toronta), whose article was published by the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, became interested in the question of their origin. Scientists note that in planetary systems like the Sun, the random play of gravity can also throw small bodies into interstellar space. However, comets will dominate among them: in comparison with asteroids, they are less attracted to the star and have less stable orbits. On the other hand, Oumuamua's spectrum indicated that it is a rocky asteroid, and it did not show any characteristic signs of comets when flying in the vicinity of the Sun.
Scientists suggest that in the general pool of such small interstellar wanderers of the Galaxy should be dominated by bodies ejected not by mature systems, but by young ones - early objects of gas and dust clouds, the results of a collision of planetary embryos. And if we are talking about a close binary stellar system with its changeable gravitational fields, then it throws out rocky bodies in an amount comparable to ice comets. From such a system, Jackson and his co-authors believe, most likely, Oumuamua flew to us.
Sergey Vasiliev