Interstellar Objects

The first known interstellar object detected passing through our Solar System is an asteroid called ʻOumuamua’, which was observed in 2017. It was a rocky, cigar-shaped object tumbling through space. Another interstellar object our solar system may have had a close encounter with happened around 70,000 years ago. A Red Dwarf star named Scholz's Star passed through the Solar System’s Oort cloud (~52,000 AU). It was so close in fact, that it nudged some Comets out of their orbits. It may have been visible to early Humans and Neanderthals.