Interstellar object

ʻOumuamua

ʻOumuamua came from another star and is on its way out of the Solar System.

The first object ever seen passing through the Solar System from another star, found on 19 October 2017. It sped up slightly on the way out, and nobody is sure why.

Key facts

Catalogue

1I/2017 U1

Closest to the Sun

0.26 au

How the map draws it

Drawn as a generic asteroid — the kind of thing, not this exact one · nobody has seen its shape; the way its brightness changed says it is much longer or flatter than this.