About Oumuamua
1I/’Oumuamua is the first confirmed interstellar object ever detected passing through the Solar System. Robert Weryk spotted it on 19 October 2017 using the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii. Its hyperbolic orbit (eccentricity > 1) immediately revealed that it was not gravitationally bound to the Sun and had originated outside the Solar System. ‘Oumuamua is extremely elongated — at least 6:1 axis ratio — and showed a small non-gravitational acceleration that has never been fully explained by either standard outgassing or exotic hypotheses.
Physical Properties
Orbit
Gallery
Hand-picked mission imagery of Oumuamua sourced from NASA and partner archives. Click any photo for full resolution and source attribution.
Imagery on this page is provided by the original mission teams. Full attribution terms: Image Rights & Credits.
Sources & Further Reading
- NASA — official mission / factsheet page
- Wikipedia — extensive cross-referenced article
- NASA u2014 'Oumuamua
- Meech et al., Nature 2017 u2014 A brief visit from a red and extremely elongated interstellar asteroid (2017)
Numerical values (radius, mass, orbital elements, temperatures) are drawn from NASA NSSDC Planetary Fact Sheets, JPL Horizons, and the JPL Small-Body Database. Last refreshed: 2026-06-08 01:37:02.