# Outgassing of water or another undetected ordinary volatile from an icy body, below the limits of every…

> Still possible: Outgassing of water or another undetected ordinary volatile from an icy body, below the limits of every search, as in the dark comets.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oumuamua/answers/ANS0CSKC0W61KZV/outgassing-of-water-or-another-undetected-ordinary-volatile  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[1I/'Oumuamua](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oumuamua)[What pushed 'Oumuamua away from the Sun?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oumuamua/questions/QST0CSKBZDA67JF/what-pushed-oumuamua-away-from-the-sun)Answer

Answer · 1I/'Oumuamua

# Outgassing of water or another undetected ordinary volatile from an icy body, below the limits of every…

Outgassing of water or another undetected ordinary volatile from an icy body, below the limits of every search, as in the dark comets.

**Still possible** Answers **1** questionPublished0

## Where it stands

**Still possible** Its tests haven't settled it: three pieces of evidence for, three against. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

## What it predicts

- The gas production needed is energetically possible for a body of 'Oumuamua's size and albedo at its distances from the Sun.
- Solar System bodies exist that accelerate this way with no detectable coma.
- A future 'Oumuamua-like object shows water (or OH) in deep spectra near perihelion.

## What would rule it out

- A demonstration that sunlight on a body within the Spitzer size limits cannot sublimate enough water to give the measured push; or a future analogue showing the acceleration with water production firmly below that need.

## Evidence 3 for · 3 against

[Light-curve models need a torque of the size outgassing produces in comets.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oumuamua/evidence/EVD0CSKC2385WCD/light-curve-models-need-a-torque-of-the-size-outgassing)

Suggestive

FOR

[Outgassing was the only mechanism the discovery team found physically viable, if the body had comet-like…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oumuamua/evidence/EVD0CSKC1407J6K/outgassing-was-the-only-mechanism-the-discovery-team-found)

Supported

FOR

[Small near-Earth asteroids with no visible activity show non-gravitational accelerations too large for the…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oumuamua/evidence/EVD0CSKC1VE1VM1/small-near-earth-asteroids-with-no-visible-activity-show-non)

Supported

FOR

[Spitzer limits CO and CO2 to about ten thousand times below what the outgassing model needed; water was not…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oumuamua/evidence/EVD0CSKC1BT03JA/spitzer-limits-co-and-co2-to-about-ten-thousand-times-below)

Established

AGAINST

[The light curve shows no secular change in spin, which is in tension with how outgassing comets spin up.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oumuamua/evidence/EVD0CSKC2B22PP3/the-light-curve-shows-no-secular-change-in-spin-which-is-in)

Suggestive

AGAINST

[Water sublimation driven by sunlight does not fit the outbound acceleration for a body of this size.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oumuamua/evidence/EVD0CSKC1KM4693/water-sublimation-driven-by-sunlight-does-not-fit-the)

Supported

AGAINST

## The questions it answers

[What pushed 'Oumuamua away from the Sun?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oumuamua/questions/QST0CSKBZDA67JF/what-pushed-oumuamua-away-from-the-sun)

Open8 answers, none ahead

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Outgassing of water or another undetected ordinary volatile from an icy body, below the limits of every… [Answer ANS0CSKC0W61KZV]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0CSKC0W61KZV
```

Key

**ANS** 0CSKC0W61KZV

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Origin

Published

Version

1

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