Interstellar visitor ’Oumuamua probably came from a two-star system
by Stuart Clark from on (#3JK9E)
Astronomers studying the interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua find that it probably formed around a binary star
The mysterious, cigar-shaped object now called 'Oumuamua was found crossing the solar system last October by robotic telescopes on Hawaii. The trajectory showed it had come from another star system and was already on its way back into interstellar space. This sparked a race against time. Astronomers had just a week before it faded from view.
Identifying its home star system seemed like a hopeless task. Our galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars. Now, however, a new study narrows things down a bit. It concludes that 'Oumuamua, meaning "scout" in Hawaiian, probably came from a binary star.
Continue reading...