Interstellar object ʻOumuamua may be a fragment of Pluto-like planet
The first observed interstellar object zipped through our solar system in October 2017 — and astronomers have been trying to understand it ever since.
Scientists scrambled to observe the object before it disappeared, moving along at 196,000 miles per hour, and their observations caused more questions than answers about the “oddball,” as scientists dubbed it.
Now, the latest research suggests it is a fragment of a Pluto-like planet from another solar system.
Steven Desch and Alan Jackson, two astrophysicists at Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration, have studied observations made of the unusual features of ‘Oumuamua. Their findings published Tuesday in twostudies in the American Geophysical Union Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.