Object Analysis

'Oumuamua (1I/2017 U1) is the first known interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System. It was discovered by Robert Weryk using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, on October 19, 2017.

The object is highly unusual. It is extremely elongated, roughly cigar or pancake-shaped, and was tumbling end-over-end rather than rotating smoothly. It showed no signs of a coma (gas or dust envelope) like a comet, yet it exhibited "non-gravitational acceleration"—it sped up as it left the Solar System, suggesting some form of outgassing was pushing it.

Its origin is unknown, though it likely came from the direction of Vega in the constellation Lyra. Its bizarre properties led to wild speculation about it being an alien artifact, though most astronomers agree it is a natural fragment of a planetary body ejected from another star system, possibly nitrogen ice.