Turns out, it came from another star system. This is the first time humanity has observed an interstellar object. Astronomers discovered it on Oct. 19. At first, they thought it was a comet.

In the century or so since Edwin Hubble discovered that the Milky Way is just one of countless galaxies in the universe, our ...

In late 2017, a mysterious object tore through our solar system at breakneck speed. Astronomers scrambled to observe the fast ...

"We're trying to encounter an astronomical object that streaks through our solar system just once and we don’t want to miss ...

How can astronomers pierce through the interstellar fog of the Milky Way—not to study distant objects, but to understand the ...

A new model has been developed to simulate interstellar activity within our solar system and the nearby Alpha Centauri system ...

More information: Richard Cloete et al, Machine learning methods for automated interstellar object classification with LSST, Astronomy & Astrophysics (2024). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202451118 ...

The detection of a large interstellar object in 2017 named 'Oumuamua was a landmark discovery. Figuring out where the wayward traveler came from, though, is another challenge entirely, especially ...

The object's trajectory strongly suggested it came from another star system, making it the first interstellar object ever detected. Scientists gave it a Hawaiian name, 'Oumuamua, meaning "scout ...

Astronomers found two strange, dense, icy objects by chance in 2021 during a survey of our galaxy’s disk by Japan’s AKARI satellite. A closer look showed that they are made of interstellar ice ...