interstellar space

A bizarre object named ‘Oumuamua, defying classification, was the first interstellar object ever discovered. Now a newly proposed origin story neatly explains all of its observed oddities – it may be a piece of nitrogen ice from an “exo-Pluto.”

NASA's New Horizons deep-space probe has, for the first time, returned images to Earth that showed stellar parallax, or how the positions of stars shift when seen from two different places. This could one day be used for interstellar navigation.

The exact nature of the bizarre interstellar object ‘Oumuamua remains a mystery. There’s been no shortage of ideas, but now astronomers at Yale and the University of Chicago have proposed that it’s a brand new type of object: a hydrogen iceberg.

An MIT researcher proposes using solar sails to position deep-space probes on the edge of the solar system that could lay in wait before being unleashed and set on an intercept course with an interstellar visitor.

Despite whizzing around the Sun at around 100,000 mph last year, scientists have quantified the amount of water comet 2I/Borisov shed on this leg of the journey, the first time they have gained such an insight into an interstellar comet.

2I/Borisov is a comet from another star system, and now Hubble has taken the valuable opportunity to study its chemical makeup. The study reveals Borisov is very different to any local comet, giving hints about what kind of system it was born in.

‘Oumuamua, the first interstellar interloper detected passing through our solar system, raised many questions. According to a new model, the object’s unusual shape and trajectory may be the result of a devastating close encounter with a star.

2I/Borisov is the first interstellar comet seen, and Hubble has been watching its journey through our neighborhood. The telescope has snapped new images of the comet, which has now swung past the Sun and is on its way back out of the solar system.

Scientists have captured a close-up view of the ancient alien comet 2l/Borisov, which is currently careening through our solar system before it shoots back out into interstellar space, never to be seen again.

Astronomers have detected complex carbon molecules – previously only thought to be made in a lab setting – in interstellar space. Now scientists have created them under space-like conditions, hinting at how they can naturally form between the stars.

A new Japanese study simulated interstellar clouds of dust and gas, and managed to produce some of the building blocks of DNA.

Using telescopes trained on the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, astronomers have identified the first gas molecules from a comet originating outside the solar system.