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Scratching the Surface: It's A Comet, It's An Asteroid... No, it's 'Oumuamua'

European Southern Observatory/M. Kornmesser
/
NASA

In October 2017 the Pan Starrs telescope in Haleakala, Hawaii caught a glimpse of something unusual. Initially classified as a comet and then as an asteroid, the small (800 feet)  disc-shaped rock called 'Oumuamua tumbled into our orbit and became the first of a new class of interstellar objects.

Scientists are still uncertain about the quite-foreign object's origins. In this epsiode, Caitlin Ahrens breaks down what we do know about the mysterious new "mildly active comet."

Scratching the Surface airs Fridays at 2:04 pm. For more on the Center for Space and Planetary Science, visit spacecenter.uark.edu/

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