First-Known Interstellar Object Looks...Pretty Weird

An artist's impression of the asteroid `Oumuamua. It's around ten times as long as it is wide. (Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser) Scientists now have an idea of what the first recorded extra-solar asteroid looked like. The hunk of rock of that whipped through the solar system in October looks like no other asteroid we've seen before, they say, long and thin like a javelin and colored red from millions of years of accumulated radiation exposure. The coloration wasn't surprising, but the shape was, say astronomers from the European Southern Observatory. Most objects astronomers observe in our solar system are roughly spherical, drawn into a ball by gravity. This asteroid, now named `Oumuamua, is about 10 times as long as it is wide, according to research published Monday in Nature. `Oumuamua is also spinning rapidly, something that helped clue astronomers in to its shape. During the few weeks when it was visible, ...