On Oct.19, the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii spotted a strange, cigar-shaped object zooming through our solar system. It turned out to be the first object from outside our solar system to ever be observed zipping through our neck of the universe.

CNN says astronomers are calling it "unlike anything" they have seen before. The elongated rocky object has a burnt dark-reddish color due to millions of years of radiation from cosmic rays is similar to objects seen in the far off Kuiper Belt between Neptune and Pluto, spinning on its own axis every 7.3 hours. And, its cigar shape --10 times as long as it is wide-- has never been seen in space before.

Courtesty PanSTARRS1
Courtesy PanSTARRS1
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It is the first-ever "interstellar asteroid" because it came from outside of our solar system. It's been nicknamed with Hawaiian name, "Oumuamua" (pronounce every vowel: Oh-you-mu-ah-mu-ah) --which loosely translates to "a messenger that reaches out from the distant past."

Space, the final frontier.

Fascinating.

Live long and prosper.

 

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