Alien spacecraft?
It’s a huge cigar-shaped object unlike anything seen before, and it came from deep space. Because it is so unusual, there has been some (not too serious) speculation that it may be an ancient alien spacecraft.
The object was discovered on Oct. 19 by Canadian Robert Weryk at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy and described in a paper for the science journal Nature
Andrew Fazekas is an astronomer, author, and science columnist.
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Because of the unique nature of the asteroid, 1T/2017-U1, scientists felt it should be named, but even that caused a bit of difficulty.
They settled on “Oumuamua” a Hawaiian word meaning a scout or messenger. (ou=reach out, mua=first-in advance)
Scientists have been eagerly studying information from radio telescopes to determine such things as the composition of the highly unusually-shaped asteroid as it slowly tumbles while speeding through space.
The object, is likely a shard from some planetary or other collision deep in space and may have been travelling for millions of years. The object gained speed as it neared the sun and then was slingshotted around the sun on a new trajectory out of our solar system.
Scientist are now busily analyzing data as it head out of range but feel it may provide added information about how planetary systems form and other information about interstellar objects. Of the 750,000 known asteroids and comets, this is the first identified as coming from outside our solar system.
NASA:Jet Propulsion Lab ( ESO/M. Kornmesser)
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