Since its discovery towards the end of last year, ‘Oumuamua was heralded as the first interstellar object to appear in our solar system, but confused many astronomers with its peculiar trajectory and the fact that it could potentially harbour some form of biological life. ‘Oumuamua (pronounced oh-MOO-uh-MOO-uh) initially was pegged as a comet, but it lacks the tail of gas and dust characteristic of many comets, and some scientists argued that it was perhaps a dry asteroid. By combining data collected from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, ESO’s Very Large Telescope, and the Gemini South Telescope, a team led by Marco Micheli from the European Space Agency noticed something odd about ‘Oumuamua: It’s moving faster than expected.
The first known interstellar object to pass through the Solar System, ʻOumuamua, has been identified as a very inactive comet and not an asteroid, as previously thought.