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What happened when astronomers discovered the first alien from another solar system? This is a true story! In 2017, a telescope in Hawaii spotted a distant object in the night sky, behaving like nothing we’d ever seen before. They named it ‘Oumuamua, and an astronomical chase began! Join astronomer Jane Luu on her quest to track it down and figure out how the first interstellar visitor arrived in our solar system.
Listen to Jane's first exciting astronomical quest for discovery, in our episode about how she discovered the Kuiper Belt:
'OUMUAMU-WHAT?
The first interstellar visitor puzzled astronomers (and they're still scratching their heads). Here's some great resources to learn more about it.
This TED talk is about how astronomers were able to get an up close look at Oumuamua.
Want to know more about that Harvard alien theory? Here you go!
This PBS video gives a more in-depth look at where 'Oumuamua came from:
Okay, that's enough cigar-shaped rocks. Here are a few articles that we used in our episode!
Astronomers race to learn from the first interstellar asteroid ever seen - An early report on the sighting referred to 'Oumuamua as an asteroid
Interstellar object believed to be 'active asteroid' - The latest research (April 2020) is back to the asteroid/comet idea, theorizing how 'Oumuamua could have been pulled away from a larger body
How the second interstellar visitor makes 'Oumuamua seem even odder - An amateur astronomer spotted a second object in 2019
Jane's papers on 'Oumuamua
The first with Dave Jewitt based on the NOT images
A theory that 'Oumuamua is a "fractal dust aggregate"
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