An interstellar object from another solar system

NASA astronomers are now confident that the mysterious object discovered last month flying past our Sun is indeed from another star system.
This was announced on the space agency’s website.

The certainty of its extraterrestrial origin stems from an analysis showing that its orbit is nearly impossible to reach from our solar system.

The object was named 1I/2017 U1, or «messenger,» in Hawaiian, ‘Oumuamua. Astronomers have reported that objects of this type pass through our solar system once a year, but they are difficult to detect even with the most powerful telescopes.

The asteroid, which was detected on October 19, 2017, by the Pan-STARSS 1 telescope in Hawaii, is an elongated rocky object reaching 400 meters in length.

Scientists initially mistook ‘Oumuamua for a comet, but after analyzing its size and trajectory, astronomers concluded that the object is an asteroid «traveling» from one star system to another.

«For decades, we’ve theorized that such interstellar objects exist, and now, for the first time, we have direct evidence.» «This opens a new window of opportunity for us to study the formation of solar systems beyond our own,» NASA’s website quotes study participant Thomas Zurbuchen as saying.

At the same time, scientists believe that ‘Oumuamua, which is moving at 26.4 kilometers per second, arrived from the star Vega, located in the constellation Lyra, and took 300,000 years to complete this journey.

It will leave our solar system in early 2019 and head toward the constellation Pegasus.

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