Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Olmsted and F. Summers (STScI)

This artist's illustration shows the wayward interstellar visitor

'Oumuamua (pronounced oh-MOO-ah-MOO-ah) racing toward the outskirts

of our solar system. The object, heated by the Sun (lower right),

is venting gaseous material from its surface, as a comet would.

Researchers suggest this outgassing is one possible cause for

'Oumuamua's slight acceleration, as detected by several telescopes.

The irregularly shaped object is only a half-mile across. It is

now farther from the Sun than Jupiter and traveling away at about

70,000 miles per hour. The orbits of the major planets are

included for scale. The box-shaped constellation Corvus is in the

background near image center, and the bright blue star Spica is at

upper left of center, in the constellation Virgo. The stars at

bottom left belong to the constellation Hydra.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2018/news-2018-25

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: http://hubblesite.org/copyright/