Oumuamua, first interstellar object
Oumuamua: primer objeto interestelar
- Date
- 2017 · confidence high
- Place
- Haleakalā Observatory (Pan-STARRS), Maui, Hawaii, United States
- Credited to
- Robert Weryk (Pan-STARRS 1)
- People
- 👤 Robert Weryk1981–
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
An elongated body with non-gravitational acceleration that crossed the Solar System on a hyperbolic orbit: the first confirmed visitor from another star system.
Its nature (nitrogen iceberg, dark comet, fragment) remains under discussion; Loeb's artificial-origin hypothesis is a minority view.
What it led to
- Discovery of interstellar comet 2I/Borisov (2019) and 3I/ATLAS (2025)
- Proposals for intercept missions
- Debate over the nature of interstellar objects