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Today in History: Robert Weryk discovers first interstellar object ‘Oumuamua

10/19/2025

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Summary

Story summary

On October 19, 2017, Canadian astronomer Robert Weryk discovered ‘Oumuamua, the first confirmed interstellar object to pass through the Solar System. Detected using the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii, it was about 33 million kilometers from Earth at the time and had already passed its closest point to the Sun weeks earlier.

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Story summary

On October 19, 2017, Canadian astronomer Robert Weryk discovered ‘Oumuamua, the first confirmed interstellar object to pass through the Solar System. Detected using the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii, it was about 33 million kilometers from Earth at the time and had already passed its closest point to the Sun weeks earlier.