Something completely unprecedented has happened. Astronomers operating the Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Hawaii have detected an object tumbling through our solar system, but its extreme hyperbolic trajectory dictates that it did not originate here. We have found our very first known interstellar visitor.



Designated 'Oumuamua, this object is hurtling away from the Sun at breakneck speed. Observations suggest it is highly elongated, perhaps like a cigar or a flat disc, and completely devoid of any cometary dust coma. To think that a fragment of rock or metal ejected from another star system millions, or perhaps billions, of years ago has just briefly grazed our neighbourhood is an awe-inspiring thought.