'Oumuamua origin story: How our mysterious interstellar visitor may have been born


Oct 22, 2019
Interesting model explaining this possible ISO (Interstellar object). Looks like exoplanet formation, most exoplanets that evolve via protoplanetary disks, in the evolutionary process creates an abundance of interstellar Oort clouds too. Here is another report on the model, https://phys.org/news/2020-04-formation-theory-mysterious-interstellar-oumuamua.html

"This work supports estimates of a large population of 'Oumuamua-like interstellar objects. Since these objects may pass through the domains of habitable zones, the possibility that they could transport matter capable of generating life (called panspermia) cannot be ruled out. "This is a very new field. These interstellar objects could provide critical clues about how planetary systems form and evolve," Zhang said."

From the abstract, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1065-8, "...We infer that the progenitors of ‘Oumuamua-like ISOs may be kilometre-sized long-period comets from Oort clouds, kilometre-sized residual planetesimals from debris disks or planet-sized bodies at a few astronomical units, orbiting around low-mass main-sequence stars or white dwarfs. These provide abundant reservoirs to account for ‘Oumuamua’s occurrence rate."

Apparently the protoplanetary accretion disks, creates an unobserved population of interstellar Oort clouds too along with possible *panspermia* in the galaxy. Presently our solar system Oort Cloud is not directly imaged like photos of Jupiter for example. We have 4248 confirmed exoplanets now, The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia

It should be interesting to see if some or most of the confirmed exoplanets, will be shown to have *interstellar* Oort clouds. Perhaps *panspermia* will be confirmed too :)