Author: Ned Dymoke / Source: Big Think
In a curious case of interstellar immigration, astronomers have found an asteroid that came from outside our galaxy hurtling around Jupiter. Now, there are millions of asteroids that circle Jupiter and most of them are in two huge clusters. But this asteroid — named 2015 BZ509 or ‘BZ’ for short — is going the wrong way.
Best part? It’s been doing that for about 4.5 billion years. It was attracted here initially by the sun’s gravitational pull (who wouldn’t be?) and decided to stick around, but wanted to do so in its own way. Via the NYT, take a look at the orbit here:
Pretty neat! Each rotation around the sun takes about 11.6 years, and due to Jupiter’s own immense gravitational…
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