An Interstellar Asteroid Just Flew Past Earth, Here’s What You Need to Know
In October, astronomers observed an interstellar asteroid for the first time. We talked to one of the first to study it, and here's everything they've learned in the months since. What's...
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In the fall of 2017, we spotted an unexpected visitor to our solar system from deep space. We’d never seen anything like it! It came out of nowhere, was on a surprising trajectory, and it was MOVING FAST. It wasn’t aliens, but it’s still just fantastic. This is Karen Meech. I'm an astronomer at the Institute For Astronomy University of Hawaii. Her team spotted the UFO , and eventually: Oumuamua. It’s not aliens, it’s an asteroid. But before you leave! It’s an asteroid like none we’ve ever observed before! An asteroid from another star. A piece of interstellar debris! When I first heard about the detection I was very excited because we expected that these things should exist, but nobody had ever seen one before. Imagine that our solar syst...
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In the fall of 2017, we spotted an unexpected visitor to our solar system from deep space. We’d never seen anything like it! It came out of nowhere, was on a surprising trajectory, and it was MOVING FAST. It wasn’t aliens, but it’s still just fantastic. This is Karen Meech. I'm an astronomer at the Institute For Astronomy University of Hawaii. Her team spotted the UFO , and eventually: Oumuamua. It’s not aliens, it’s an asteroid. But before you leave! It’s an asteroid like none we’ve ever observed before! An asteroid from another star. A piece of interstellar debris! When I first heard about the detection I was very excited because we expected that these things should exist, but nobody had ever seen one before. Imagine that our solar syst...
