Discovery of Oumuamua

Oumuamua - Interstellar Object
Source: ESO/K. Meech et al
Image downloaded from: Telescope Image of Oumuamua

The image was created by combining multiple images European Southern Observatory 's Very large telescope and The Gemini South Telescope.

It was discovered on October 19, 2017 by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS1 telescope.  It does not show the sign of comet activities, it was classified as Asteroid until new experiments found that it signs to behave like a comet.  This is the first object to visit our solar system from outer space.  The aspect ratio of this object is greater than any other asteroid or comet in our solar system until now.

The official name of the object is 1l/2017 which was given by IAU(International Astronomical Union).  In addition to the technical name the Pan-STARRS team dubbed it as 'Oumuamua' which is Hawailan for "a messenger from a far arriving first" Two of NASA's space telescopes Hubble and Spitzer tracked the object travelling about 85,700 miles per hour relative to the Sun.  Also other Telescopes in ground level continue to track the object.

Where is Oumuamua now?

Today Oumuamua is somewhere between the orbits of Saturn and Neptune and is going far away from us.

Source link: NASA -Oumuamua
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Last Modified on 2nd March 2021, 10:00 PM IST

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