Alien asteroid is first known ‘permanent resident’ from outside our solar system
by Doyle Rice
Image of stellar nursery NGC 604, where star systems are closely packed and asteroid exchange is thought to be possible. Asteroid 2015 BZ 509 emigrated from its parent star and settled around the sun in a similar environment. (Photo: NASA / Hubble Heritage Team)
Hey bub, you’re going the wrong way.
The solar system’s first known “resident” that came from interstellar space — an asteroid orbiting backward around Jupiter — has been discovered, scientists announced Monday.
“How the asteroid came to move in this way while sharing Jupiter’s orbit has until now been a mystery,” said Fathi Namouni, lead author of the new study and a scientist at the University of Cote d’Azur in Nice, France.
The planets and most other objects in our solar system travel around the sun in the same direction. This asteroid is different — moving in the opposite direction in “retrograde” orbit.
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