ʻOumuamua is the first known interstellar object detected passing through our solar system. Discovered in October 2017 by astronomers at the University of Hawaii, its name means “a messenger from afar arriving first” in Hawaiian. Unlike comets or asteroids from our own solar system, ʻOumuamua originated from beyond—its hyperbolic trajectory confirmed it was not gravitationally bound to the Sun.

Its shape, motion, and lack of a visible tail sparked debate: some believed it was an unusually elongated natural object, while others proposed it might be an artificial probe. What made ʻOumuamua especially mysterious was its acceleration as it exited the solar system, which couldn’t be fully explained by known natural forces like gravity or outgassing. It became a symbol of the unknown—something ancient, passing silently through our domain before returning to the vastness.