News Astronomy

We still don’t know where the first interstellar asteroid came from

Clues from ‘Oumuamua’s speed and trajectory lead to answers all over the sky map

illustration of 'Oumuamua

ALIEN ASTEROID  This artist’s representation of interstellar asteroid ‘Oumuamua shows its unusual shape: 400 meters long and just about 40 meters wide. No asteroids in the solar system are shaped like that. 

M. Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory

By Lisa Grossman

This article is only available to Science News subscribers.

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address to access our archives.

Not a subscriber?

Science News is a nonprofit.

Support us by subscribing now.

More Stories from Science News on Astronomy

  1. dwarf galaxy HSC J1631+4426
    Astronomy

    A record-breaking, oxygen-starved galaxy may be full of gigantic stars’ shrapnel

    By Ken Croswell
  2. remnant of a 1a supernova
    Physics

    Uranium ‘snowflakes’ could set off thermonuclear explosions of dead stars

    By Emily Conover
  3. image of the big dipper constellation in the sky
    Astronomy

    Here’s why humans chose particular groups of stars as constellations

    By Emily Conover
  4. Diagram of low-frequency radio waves in galaxy cluster Abell 2877
    Astronomy

    The ‘USS Jellyfish’ emits strange radio waves from a distant galaxy cluster

    By Ken Croswell
  5. M87's black hole with polarization of light waves
    Astronomy

    A new black hole image reveals the behemoth’s magnetic fields

    By Maria Temming
  6. Green Bank Telescope
    Astronomy

    Carbon-ring molecules tied to life were found in space for the first time

    By Lisa Grossman
  7. pink streaks from the Antlia supernova remnant with galaxies in the background
    Astronomy

    A gargantuan supernova remnant looks 40 times as big as the full moon

    By Ken Croswell
  8. image of Andromeda galaxy
    Astronomy

    Andromeda’s and the Milky Way’s black holes will collide. Here’s how it may play out

    By Sid Perkins

From the Nature Index

Paid Content