Uploaded December 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Oumuamua, meaning "scout" or "messenger from distant past" in Hawaiian, is the first known interstellar object to enter our solar system.
It created a huge buzz when it was discovered 5 years ago, days after its closest approach to Earth. Since then it has intrigued astronomers and researchers alike.
It's unique features lead many researchers to suggest that it might be a part of an alien spaceship. An artificial object, made by an intelligent civilization.
It is 10 times longer than wide, an elongated cigar shape. The shape is highly unusual for a comet or an asteroid.
It also has a very low surface temperature when compared to other asteroids, suggesting that it has a highly reflective surface.
Not only this, when it left the inner solar system, it's speed increased unexpectedly, showing non-gravitational acceleration.
Some researchers believe that is either a comet or an asteroid. It might have been created due to an impact to its parent planet around half a billion years ago.
It is likely to have entered our solar system in 1995, but missed getting detected. It slowly lost most of its mass, and became the current size.
The object is now saying good bye, as it crosses the orbit of Pluto. It will be completely gone from our solar system in the next two years.
And, we might never find out, what Oumuamua truly was.
Oumuamua, meaning "scout" or "messenger from distant past" in Hawaiian, is the first known interstellar object to enter our solar system.
It created a huge buzz when it was discovered 5 years ago, days after its closest approach to Earth. Since then it has intrigued astronomers and researchers alike.
It's unique features lead many researchers to suggest that it might be a part of an alien spaceship. An artificial object, made by an intelligent civilization.
It is 10 times longer than wide, an elongated cigar shape. The shape is highly unusual for a comet or an asteroid.
It also has a very low surface temperature when compared to other asteroids, suggesting that it has a highly reflective surface.
Not only this, when it left the inner solar system, it's speed increased unexpectedly, showing non-gravitational acceleration.
Some researchers believe that is either a comet or an asteroid. It might have been created due to an impact to its parent planet around half a billion years ago.
It is likely to have entered our solar system in 1995, but missed getting detected. It slowly lost most of its mass, and became the current size.
The object is now saying good bye, as it crosses the orbit of Pluto. It will be completely gone from our solar system in the next two years.
And, we might never find out, what Oumuamua truly was.
