ʻOumuamua: The Visitor from Space

space · astronomy · interstellar

First interstellar visitor. ʻOumuamua is the very first object from outside our Solar System that scientists have ever detected passing through it. Astronomers spotted it on October 19, 2017, using a telescope in Hawaii.

Discovered by Robert Weryk. A Canadian astronomer named Robert Weryk found ʻOumuamua using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakalā Observatory in Hawaii. He was scanning the sky when this mysterious object appeared.

Close call with the Sun. ʻOumuamua passed closest to our Sun on September 9, 2017, coming within a specific distance of it. By the time scientists discovered it about 40 days later, it was already zooming away from our star.

Coming from the stars. This small object traveled from another star system far, far away and happened to pass through our Solar System. Scientists think it came from the direction of the star Vega, which is 25 light-years away.

Speeding away fast. When discovered, ʻOumuamua was about 33 million kilometers from Earth and moving away from the Sun at high speed. It will keep traveling through space and eventually leave our Solar System completely.