0
The tumbling rotational state of 1I/'Oumuamua
Wesley C. Fraser, Petr Pravec, Alan Fitzsimmons et al., 2018. Nature Astronomy.
Analyses all optical photometry published to that date and finds that no single rotation period fits: the body is in non-principal-axis rotation (tumbling), with light-curve frequencies of 0.135 and 0.126 per hour, an axis ratio of at least 5:1, and a damping time of a billion years or more. Nature Astronomy 2, 383-386.
What it's used for here
The first demonstration of tumbling; the damping-time argument places the excitation before arrival.
Our copy
Research copy, for editors and curators. The work is the publisher's, so readers are sent to it. We keep this copy so the citation can be checked if the page changes or goes.
doi.org · fetched 27 Oct 2026Open the file
Loading…
Cited by on this site 3 records
1I/'Oumuamua
MYSThe mystery article
Cite it
Fraser, W. C., Pravec, P., Fitzsimmons, A., Lacerda, P., Bannister, M. T., Snodgrass, C., & Smolic, I. (2018). The tumbling rotational state of 1I/'Oumuamua. Nature Astronomy. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0398-z
@article{fraser2018tumbling,
author = {Fraser, Wesley C. and Pravec, Petr and Fitzsimmons, Alan and Lacerda, Pedro and Bannister, Michele T. and Snodgrass, Colin and Smolic, Igor},
title = {The tumbling rotational state of 1I/'Oumuamua},
journal = {Nature Astronomy},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.1038/s41550-018-0398-z},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0398-z}
}TY - JOUR TI - The tumbling rotational state of 1I/'Oumuamua AU - Fraser, Wesley C. AU - Pravec, Petr AU - Fitzsimmons, Alan AU - Lacerda, Pedro AU - Bannister, Michele T. AU - Snodgrass, Colin AU - Smolic, Igor PY - 2018 JO - Nature Astronomy DO - 10.1038/s41550-018-0398-z UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0398-z ER -
Fraser, Wesley C. et al.. “The tumbling rotational state of 1I/'Oumuamua.” Nature Astronomy (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0398-z.