Solar System's First Interstellar Visitor Dazzles Scientists

The Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes were tracking the first known interstellar object during the week of November 20, 2017. The Hawaiian name: “Oumuamua”, was given to it, meaning messenger from afar arriving first. Oumuamua is travelling at about 38.3 kilometres per second relative to the sun and is about 200 million kilometres from Earth. It is less than 400 meters in diameter, rocky and cigar-shaped. It had been travelling unattached to any star system, through the Milky Way, for hundreds of millions years. This history-making discovery serves as evidence that solar systems exist beyond our own.