Remember that ‘alien’ asteroid found by scientists in October?
It’s called A/2017 U1 and is an asteroid that’s from a completely different solar system.
Now scientists are pretty sure that the object is the first alien, interstellar object they’ve ever seen.
The strange, long, red rock has been wandering between the Milky Way for hundreds of million years and might even be covered in living molecules!
Could this back up some theories that life on Earth began with molecules travelling to our planet from another solar system?
Some astronomers think so.
The object has been nicknamed ‘Oumuamua’. Dr Karen Meech, from the Institute for Astronomy in Hawaii, said:
“Oumuamua may well have been wandering through the Milky Way, unattached to any star system, for hundreds of millions of years before its chance encounter with the solar system.”
Oumuamua was discovered by the 1.8 metre Pan-STARR telescope in Hawaii, which is part of a system set up to track potentially threatening objects near Earth.
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