2020/07/09 by Thiem Hoang, Abraham Loeb, Hoang, Thiem +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #astro-ph.EP #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2007.04892
4 pages, 2 figures; submitted
arxiv created 2020/07/09 · openalex publication_date 2020/07/09 · arxiv updated 2020/07/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We calculate the surface temperature and the resulting brightness of sub-relativistic objects moving through the Solar system due to collisional heating by gas and radiative heating by solar radiation. The thermal emission from objects of size \gtrsim 100 m and speed of \gtrsim 0.1c, can be detected by the upcoming \it James Webb Space Telescope out to a distance of ∼ 100 au. Future surveys could therefore set interesting limits on the abundance of fast-moving interstellar objects or spacecraft.