A new study by Harvard scientists has suggested that the first interstellar immigrant “Oumuamua” discovered in our solar system may have been an alien probe sent to investigate Earth, and not a comet as previously thought.
About 1I/2017 U1:
Oumuamua is the first known interstellar object to pass through the Solar System.
Name: The Interstellar object 1I/2017 U1 has been named by the Pan-STARRS observatory team as 'Oumuamua’. The name is of Hawaiian origin and means “a messenger from afar arriving first.”
Discovery: The object was discovered on Oct. 19, 2017 by the NASA-funded Pan-STARRS1 telescope. Initially assumed to be a comet, it was reclassified as an asteroid a week later, then the first of a new class of interstellar objects.
Journey:
Scientists don’t know which star system this object came from. 1I/2017 U1’s trajectory indicates it came from the general direction of the constellation Lyra.
It is on an outbound trajectory. It will pass above Neptune’s orbit in 2022. As it leaves our solar system it is headed towards the constellation Pegasus.
Size and Shape: The object is believed to be at least a quarter-mile (400 meters) long and cigar-shaped, with a length roughly ten times longer than the width.
Composition: It is similar to many asteroids found in our solar system – dense, possibly rocky or even metallic. The object’s surface is somewhat reddish due to effects of irradiation from cosmic rays over millions of years.
Significance
First Detection: The discovery of interstellar object 1I/2017 U1 is the first detection of a celestial object in our solar system that originated from another solar system.
Unique shape: The highly-elongated shape of the object itself looks very different than any asteroid or comet we’ve seen in our own solar system.
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