That interstellar visitor from another solar system wasn’t an asteroid after all

Scientists spotted a strange object flying through the solar system last year. It looked skinny, like a cigar, and may have been a quarter-mile in length.

They named it `Oumuamua, Hawaiian for “messenger from afar,” and after analyzing its trajectory, were sure it arrived from a distant solar system.

At first, scientists suspected it was a comet. But after the European Southern Observatory found no wake of dust and gas trailing behind it — the telltale signs of traveling comets — the International Astronomical Union classified it as a rocky asteroid. But that’s not the end of the story.

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