Weird Space Object 'Oumuamua' Was Not An Alien Spacecraft After All, Scientists Say
By Staff Reporter - 16 Jul '19 22:50PM
That weird, cigar-shaped outer space object that flew through our solar system a couple of years ago wasn't an alien spacecraft, after all, scientists announced Monday in a new study.
"The alien spacecraft hypothesis is a fun idea, but our analysis suggests there is a whole host of natural phenomena that could explain it," said Matthew Knight, the study lead author from the University of Maryland, in a news release.
The traveling body, named Oumuamua (Hawaiian for "scout" or "messenger"), had been the object of debate: Astronomers initially classified it as a comet, then an asteroid then back to a comet, though even that designation isn't a certainty.
