On the Consequences of the Detection of an Interstellar Asteroid

Gregory Laughlin; Konstantin Batygin

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arXiv · 1711.02260

On the Consequences of the Detection of an Interstellar Asteroid

Gregory Laughlin·Konstantin Batygin

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Abstract

The arrival of the robustly hyperbolic asteroid A/2017 U1 has potentially interesting ramifications for the planet-formation process. Although extrapolations from a sample size of one are necessarily uncertain, order-of-magnitude estimates suggest that the Galaxy contains a substantial mass in similar bodies. We argue that despite its lack of Coma, A/2017 U1 likely contained a significant mass fraction of volatile components, and we argue that its presence can be used to infer a potentially large population of as-yet undetected Neptune-like extrasolar planets.

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Gregory Laughlin, Konstantin Batygin. 2017-11-07. On the Consequences of the Detection of an Interstellar Asteroid. https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.02260

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