Less than a year ago, astronomers discovered ‘Oumuamua, the first known object from another star system to pass through our own.
Now, in a new study published today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, astronomers announced the discovery of the first interstellar object known to have taken up permanent residence around the Sun.
A perfect fit
Astronomers first discovered the asteroid in question, which has the succinct name (413107) 2015 BZ509 (or Bee-Zed for short), back in 2015 using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS). Though the initial discovery team noticed Bee-Zed had a very peculiar, yet stable orbit — it shares a nearly perfect one-to-one resonance with Jupiter, but travels in the opposite direction — they were unable to explain why the asteroid has this ‘retrograde’ motion.
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