Alien Probe or Eccentric Comet? This Space Mystery Won’t End

In September 2017, a very strange object streaked fast across the solar system and passed close to the sun before heading away. Shiny, oblong and potentially hundreds of feet in length, the object was unlike anything scientists had ever seen. Not exactly an asteroid. Not exactly a comet.

Five years later, scientists are still arguing over the object, which they’ve named 'Oumuamua. That’s Hawaiian for “scout.” It’s a debate that could shake up whole fields of science.