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Alien Space Rock ‘Oumuamua May be Chunk of a Shredded World

A close encounter with another star may have ripped the cigar-shaped interstellar visitor ‘Oumuamua from its parent body, flinging it toward our solar system.

An artist’s impression of the strange, interstellar object ‘Oumuamua.Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

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One of the weirdest objects ever discovered in our solar system — the — is still sparking debates more than two years after its discovery. And, most recently, the conversation has shifted to whether the cosmic visitor could be a fragment torn from a larger world.

In 2017, the in Hawaii spotted an object moving at a breathtaking pace of 54 miles per second. But, unlike most comets and asteroids before it, ‘Oumuamua would only approach our sun once before continuing its journey through space. This made it the first known interstellar object to have passed through our solar system.

Scientists named the alien space rock ‘Oumuamua, which roughly translates as “messenger from afar arriving first” in Hawaiian. And though astronomers agree that ‘Oumuamua visited our solar system from another star, that’s about where the agreement ends.

Is it an alien asteroid, an alien comet, or even ?

Now, a ...

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