There’s a frozen, interstellar object about half a mile long whizzing through our solar system right now, and nobody has had a particularly clear idea about what it is — until now. According to a study published Tuesday in the Journal of Geophysical Research, it could be a chunk of a Pluto-like planet from another solar system.
It’s called ‘Oumuaumua, a Hawaiian word meaning “scout” or “messenger from afar” in honor of its sighting from the Haleakalā Observatory in Hawaii. The strangely shaped interloper may have once been a piece of a solid nitrogen exoplanet that was sent careening in our direction after an impact roughly 500 million years ago. This new theory is one of the most compelling to come out since ‘Oumuamua’s presence was first noticed in 2017 and implies that other solar systems develop in a way similar to our own. Read more…
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