Artist's Impression of the Interstellar Asteroid 'Oumuamua (IMAGE)

ESO

Artist's Impression of the Interstellar Asteroid 'Oumuamua

Caption

This artist's impression shows the first interstellar asteroid: 'Oumuamua. This unique object was discovered on Oct. 19, 2017, by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii. Subsequent observations from ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile and other observatories around the world show that it was traveling through space for millions of years before its chance encounter with our star system. 'Oumuamua seems to be a dark red highly-elongated metallic or rocky object, about 400 meters long, and is unlike anything normally found in the solar system.

Credit

ESO/M. Kornmesser

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