The astronomers of France and Brazil have identified 19 new interstellar asteroids that were captured by the Sun billions of years ago. The researchers ‘ findings published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Researchers analyzed the orbits of TRANS-Neptunian objects with a large inclination relative to the plane of the orbits of the planets and the centaurs group of asteroids between Jupiter and Neptune and are experiencing the disturbance of the giant planets. It turned out that some of the observed celestial bodies have a retrograde orbit, meaning they move in the opposite direction to the motion of the planets. This behavior can be explained only by the fact that the asteroids originally formed in the Solar system and may have an extraterrestrial origin.
Astronomers have modeled the ancient 17 of centaurs orbit with an inclination of over 60 degrees and two TRANS-Neptunian objects that are further from the Sun than Neptune. It turned out that 4.5 billion years ago, these heavenly bodies were not part of the protoplanetary disk. They were moving perpendicular to the plane of the disk and far beyond. Originally they originated in another system and could even be fragments of other planets.
According to scientists, a new population of interstellar asteroids will allow to learn more about the origin of the Sun and the role of the interstellar matter in the formation of the present chemical composition of the Solar system and its evolution.
