The unimaginable size of our universe is such a bittersweet thing. Yes, there is an uncontainable excitement to explore and know about everything out there (because that’s what we humans do) but there is also just too much to ever be known in its entirety, even with all the future generations to come.

In fact, we are at such a primitive stage of space exploration that we haven’t even explored our own solar system and are only now looking to send manned missions to Mars. We don’t even have a lunar base yet!!

Anyways, the journey still continues, ever forward and every once in a while, we get to encounter something that advances our understanding of the cosmos by leaps and bounds.

Recently, the world has been abuzz with the first interstellar object ever known to visit our solar system and it has raised all sorts of questions.

‘Oumuamua - The Interstellar Object

On October 9, a strange looking interstellar object was spotted by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii and that’s the reason it has a Hawaiian name (which means messenger). At first, astronomers thought it was a comet but then further analysis, they came to a conclusion that it was an asteroid.

However, after more observations by the European Southern Observatory, astronomers found out that it was not the usual asteroids that we encounter in our own solar system. In fact, this was a highly elongated (cigar shaped) asteroid, which is unlike anything we have seen before.

Word quickly got out and people started speculating all sorts of things, including that it could be a space ship carrying extra terrestrial beings, probably because of its unusual shape. In fact, the Breakthrough research project, even listened for any radio signals coming from the object but nothing was found that suggested ‘intelligent life’.

But that was not the end of the observations though, as in the more recent findings, it has been revealed that ‘Oumuamua has a layer of organic sunscreen on the surface which is about 0.5 meters thick and that protects it from the Sun.

That could also be the reason why ‘Oumuamua isn’t a comet as the organic layer could be preventing an icy inner core from vaporizing and forming a tail behind it.

Anyways, researchers are still studying the object while they can, as it is already on its way out of the solar system. It is expected to pass Saturn’s orbit in January 2019 on its way out.

Baby Steps

We as a race are only taking baby steps right now in trying to understand our cosmos and objects like ‘Oumuamua prove that we still don’t know even a tiny fraction about what could be out there.

Yes, with time our technologies will improve and we will be better equipped to study the different astronomical bodies and understand and answer so many questions that we have about our universe.

Even from a theoretical physics point of view, we have a lot to understand about the nature of our reality. Things like dark energy and dark matter that are thought to form 96% of the universe are still beyond our understanding at this point.

As I said, before, the journey continues and it is an exciting one for anyone who has ever gazed upon the dark sky and wondered about the sheer extent of what’s out there.