Interstellar Object 'Oumuamua's Surprise Arrival Still Thrills Scientists One Year Later

[Judi Lynn]

By Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer | October 22, 2018 04:52pm ET

A year ago, astronomers spotted a strange object barreling through our solar system on a very weird path — the first discovery of an interstellar object, now called 'Oumuamua, which means "messenger from afar" in Hawaiian.

During the abrupt flyby, scientists made frantic observations of the object before it passed out of range of even the most-powerful telescopes. Ever since then, 'Oumuamua has provided scientists a seemingly endless supply of questions, with most answers still very much up in the air.

Astronomers got their first glimpse of 'Oumuamua on Oct. 19, 2017, through the Pan-STARRS1 telescope based in Hawaii, which is fine-tuned to catch temporary phenomena like passing comets. Right away, scientists knew this wasn't your average comet; its path was way too strange. They'd caught sight of the object on its way out of our solar system, so scientists are still trying to figure out where its journey began. ['Oumuamua: The Solar System's 1st Interstellar Visitor Explained in Photos]

'Oumuamua has also endured a bit of an identity crisis during its first year in the scientific literature. At first, astronomers thought it was a comet. Then, they realized there was no cloud of gas and dust enveloping the object, so they reclassified it as an asteroid. But that proved problematic when they realized it was moving faster than an asteroid ought to be, as if getting a little boost of speed from volatile materials evaporating off its surface, like those that form a comet's surrounding cloud.

More:
https://www.space.com/42216-interstellar-object-oumuamua-one-year-later.html

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