‘Oumuamua, the much-discussed interstellar space rock, is best viewed as a comet with strange properties and not as an alien space probe, astronomers at Yale and Caltech suggest.
The space rock is the first macroscopic object of clear interstellar origin that can be seen within Earth’s solar system. It has been traveling through space for millions of years before it entered the Solar System. It has a length of 900 feet.
Researchers from the University of Hawaii first discovered ‘Oumuamua on Oct. 19, 2017, more than a month after it passed its closest point to the Sun. They named the object after the Hawaiian word for “scout.”
In the months since then, ‘Oumuamua’s behavior has baffled astronomers. For example, the object has showed a small but persistent acceleration that could not be explained simply by the Sun’s gravitational pull. As observations came in, there were a number of reclassifications and revisions to theories: It was classified as a comet, then as an asteroid, and finally as an interstellar object. Theories about its origin include everything from being a planetary fragment to a spaceship.
Check out more details about this weird space object over at Yale News.
(Image Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser)