On December 18th 2017, scientists announced in a paper posted to the journal Nature Astronomy, that an object believed to have come from another solar system may be covered in a thick layer of organic material. The cigar shaped object, which was first observed on October 19th 2017 by astronomers using the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii, was first thought to be a comet. However, the object's path and speed suggested otherwise.
The object first known as 1I/2017 U1 (I is for interstellar), has been renamed Oumuamua. It is believed to be 1,300 ft or 400 meters long and possibly 10 times as long as it is wide. It traveled around our sun at a speed of 196,000 miles per hour. Oumuamua's approach was from outside the plane of the ecliptic, on a trajectory from the direction of the star Vega, in the constellation Lyra. It is thought that its organic covering may protect a water rich interior.
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