First sighting of an interstellar object passing through the solar system!

Don't get too excited: it's a 400 m lump of mainly ice. It's high speed and angle exclude the possibility that it originate in our solar system, I believe. It came from the direction of Lyra at over 25 km/s.

https://www.space.com/38580-interstellar-object-spotted-comet-asteroid-mystery.html

Too late!

I'm already excited, AND convinced it's aliens.

Finally, I have learnt of a reasoned explanation for why the first object from outside of the solar system also happens to be the most elongated of all known objects in its class. A bit of a shame if so, since I was quite fond of the idea that the explanation was that it was artificial, enough so to be rather keen that a probe should be sent to visit it (a very challenging mission requiring the fastest spacecraft ever built to be launched in the next few years).

Here it is:

Explaining the Elongated Shape of 'Oumuamua by the Eikonal Abrasion Model

The short version: an object moving at such a speed gets abraded. Over a long enough time, this abrasion removes most of the material, and when this happens, what is left tends to be rather elongated.

It would have been very interesting if the interstellar object actually was artificially created. It would allow the extraterrestrials know about our Solar System and life on Earth. As for having intelligent life, it is to be seen.

A bit old, but good fun!