Meet 'Oumuamua, the first observed interstellar visitor to our solar system
On October 19, the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii spotted something strange zooming through our solar system. It turned out to be a visitor from beyond our solar system, and it's unlike anything astronomers have seen before.
It is the first observed object from outside our solar system, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature -- and, as the researchers call it, an "oddball."
'Oumuamua came from the direction of Vega, a bright star in the Lyra constellation. But even at 85,700 miles per hour, it took so long to reach our solar system that Vega wasn't in the same position 300,000 years ago.
The astronomers believe that instead, the object could have been traveling through our home galaxy, the Milky Way, for hundreds of millions of years, without being attached to any star system, before reaching us.
It is the first observed object from outside our solar system, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature -- and, as the researchers call it, an "oddball."
'Oumuamua came from the direction of Vega, a bright star in the Lyra constellation. But even at 85,700 miles per hour, it took so long to reach our solar system that Vega wasn't in the same position 300,000 years ago.
The astronomers believe that instead, the object could have been traveling through our home galaxy, the Milky Way, for hundreds of millions of years, without being attached to any star system, before reaching us.
Link Text
