An immigrant asteroid is the first known space rock from another solar system to make its way into ours, a new study has found.
Up until recently there has been an air of mystery surrounding asteroid 2015 BZ509, which is currently nestled in Jupiter's orbit, but researchers have now said it is a permanent immigrant to our solar system.
Unlike all the planets in our solar system, which travel around the Sun in the same direction, 2015 BZ509 moves in the opposite direction but how and why it came to move in this way while still sharing Jupiter's orbit has left scientists baffled.
That was until they deduced that the asteroid must be from another solar system because, if it were a native it would share the same direction as all other planets and asteroids, EarthSky reported.
Dr Helena Morais, one of the team's researchers, said asteroid immigration from other star systems occurs because the Sun "initially formed in a tightly-packed star cluster, where every star had its own system of planets and asteroids," according to a news release Science Daily.
She explained that the "close proximity of the stars, aided by the gravitational forces of the planets, help these systems attract, remove and capture asteroids from one another."
In 2017 researchers discovered Oumuamua, the first known object from outside the Milky Way, but unlike its permanent counterpart, this asteroid was just passing through our system.
The discovery of a more permanent immigrant asteroid can help researchers understand planet formation, solar system evolution, and possibly the origin of life and may offer clues about the Sun's original star nursery.
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