# Fraser 2018: The tumbling rotational state of 1I/'Oumuamua

> Wesley C. Fraser, Petr Pravec, Alan Fitzsimmons et al., 2018. 3 records on Mysteries Department cite it. The first demonstration of tumbling; the…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0CSKB3325J7E/the-tumbling-rotational-state-of-1i-oumuamua  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Sources](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources)[1I/'Oumuamua](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oumuamua)Fraser 2018

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# 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.

**1I/'Oumuamua** Articledoi: **[10.1038/s41550-018-0398-z](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0398-z)** Checked against the original0

## What it's used for here

The first demonstration of tumbling; the damping-time argument places the excitation before arrival.

## Cited by on this site 3 records

[Fraser et al. 2018 compiled photometry with absolute magnitudes (Supplementary Table 1)](https://mysteriesdept.com/datasets/DAT0CSKCSH83N89/fraser-et-al-2018-compiled-photometry-with-absolute)

Dataset

DAT

[The body tumbles, with an axis ratio of at least 5:1.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oumuamua/evidence/EVD0CSKCESG32C9/the-body-tumbles-with-an-axis-ratio-of-at-least-5-1)

Evidence

EVD

[1I/'Oumuamua](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oumuamua)

The mystery article

MYS

## 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
```

[Read it free at doi.org](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0398-z)

Key

**SRC** 0CSKB3325J7E

Kind

Journal article

Rights

The publisher's

Kept

27 Oct 2026, for editors

Checked

Against the published article

Added by

[apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo)

The record

Bibliographic records are CC0. Take this one as CSL-JSON, BibTeX or RIS.

[CSL-JSON](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0CSKB3325J7E/the-tumbling-rotational-state-of-1i-oumuamua/csl.json)