Oumuamua, which in Hawaiian translate to ‘visitor from afar’ or ‘first distant messenger’ flew through our solar system in October, 2017. It was the first ever recognised interstellar object to enter our solar system, meaning it came from the deep, dark, depths of space.

With its length ranging between 100-1000 metres and its unusually elongated shape, the interstellar object brought attention to the cosmos globally.

It was one characteristic that made all avid astronomers question both the object and physics itself.

Oumuamua had sped up far more than usual comets do when exiting our solar system. Speculations arose. Is this an alien spacecraft? Or is it just a fragment of a distant planet in the corner of the universe?

Oumuamua is now long out of our solar system, making it impossible to ever view again. The object has defied all knowledge, we’ll never know if it’s an asteroid, comet, or something artificial.

Professors and astronomers all over the world continue to debate on the nature of the interstellar object.

So it’s a comet?

There are many research papers and speculations that the object is definitively a comet. One downside of this argument is the object did not have a comet tail.

“It was moving very, very fast. And it was seen to ‘accelerate’ as it moved away from the Sun as comets do. But it didn’t have a comet’s tail.”

Harvard Professer Abraham Leob

So it’s an asteroid…?

Strictly speaking the one thing that defines Oumuamua as ‘not’ being asteroid is the fact that it was accelerating slightly. When an object is accelerating slightly it is more than likely a comet. But Oumuamua didn’t have a comet tail…

It’s a UFO! Not quite…

With the object now being far out of observable sight, it’s possible that any one of these arguments are the relative truth. A more exciting aspect is that the object is nothing any human being has ever seen before.

“It’s possible that the [alien] civilization is not alive anymore, but it did send out a spacecraft. We ourselves sent out Voyager I and Voyager II. There could be a lot of equipment out there.”

Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker

Harvard astrophysicists even went as far as stating the object is a definite remnant of advanced technology,

“Oumuamua is a lightsail, floating in interstellar space as debris from an advanced technological equipment”

Harvard Professors Shmuel Bialy and Abraham Loeb

Although recent studies declare that they have discovered the truth, without direct evidence we will never know what Oumuamua was or why it was here.