# First object from another solar system **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 27, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014 "2017-10-27T19:55:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014/41 "2017-11-21T13:58:22Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > T And The Rock and Will Smith are definitely not kissing their kids goodbye on their way to what they assume will be a typical work day at the military base… I thought we were pulling Atlantis and Enterprise out of mothball storage to crew it with Bruce Willis, Luke Wilson, Steve Buscemi and a bunch of other rag-tag miscreants to blow the thing to smithereens. . . . . . No? We’re not doing that? Aw man. :smack: Tripler Bruce Willis’ crew had a better soundtrack anyways. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014/42 "2017-11-21T17:13:55Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > If it is, our friend Qadgop will make short work of it, I’m sure. I could eat. > [@](#): > > Fools! Did they think that the airlessness of absolute space, the heatlessness of absolute zero, the yieldlessness of absolute neutronium, could stop QADGOP THE MERCOTAN? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014/43 "2017-11-21T19:45:20Z")
That’s a pretty cool image. Certainly going to fuel the speculation about alien visitors. And it could be an alien probe, we should be prepared for another visit in a few million years. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014/44 "2017-11-21T21:03:26Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > That’s a pretty cool image. Certainly going to fuel the speculation about alien visitors. And it could be an alien probe, we should be prepared for another visit in a few million years. I tried to impress folks in another thread, but [they didn’t go for it](http://www.daviddarling.info/images/Doomsday_Machine.jpg), folding cell phones be damned. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014/45 "2017-11-21T21:34:48Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > That representation looks like a cylindrical ship with a badly ablated protective coating, worn away over eons by interstellar dust 😃 Trouble is, the image is just an artist’s impression based on the scant description “quite a bit longer than it is wide” - I mean, quite a lot of things fit that description - I think it’s a shame the thing is here and gone before we could have got a proper look. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2017, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014/46 "2017-11-22T00:11:21Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Trouble is, the image is just an artist’s impression based on the scant description “quite a bit longer than it is wide” - I mean, quite a lot of things fit that description - I think it’s a shame the thing is here and gone before we could have got a proper look. You know what your problem is, Pal? You confuse people with facts. That is your problem, Pal! ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2017, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014/47 "2017-11-22T00:52:57Z")
In a sane culture, there would already be official scientists and engineers at the drafting tablets designing the probe to catch up with that thing. ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2017, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014/48 "2017-11-22T01:22:44Z")
Anybody try beaming “whale song” at it? ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2017, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014/49 "2017-11-22T01:38:01Z")
We should send out a mission to see if Mathilda May is inside it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2017, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014/50 "2017-11-22T07:58:00Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > You know what your problem is, Pal? > You confuse people with facts. > That is your problem, Pal! It could be a space dildo. Just sayin’ ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2017, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014/51 "2017-11-22T12:45:57Z")
[Today’s XKCD](https://xkcd.com/1919/). ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2017, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014/52 "2017-11-22T15:29:24Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > It could be a space dildo. Just sayin’ Or a turd. Squirted out the ass of the Eminent Auk of the Milky Way and congealed in that shape. [Guy Fleegman voice]_You don’t know_[/Guy Fleegman voice]. What if it is a chunk from inside the nose of the Great Green Arkleseizure? Are you ready to deal with that? Science did not invent TMI, but researchers have sure found a hell of a lot of it. I mean, do I want to know about the mating habits of garden snails (hey, it could be one of those things). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2017, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014/53 "2017-11-22T16:23:38Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Or a turd. Squirted out the ass of the Eminent Auk of the Milky Way and congealed in that shape. Another reason to be glad that it came no more close than it did. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2017, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014/54 "2017-11-22T19:54:08Z")
There is only one Sun, one Moon, one Earth, one Solar System, one Galaxy, and one Universe. There are many suns, moons, earths, solar systems, and galaxies, and might be multiple universes. The capitalization matters. At least, that’s the convention used by the International Astronomical Union and the American Astronomical Association. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014/55 "2025-09-10T04:39:35Z")
Update: Recent speculation is that 'Oumuamua was a section of nitrogen ice that may have been ejected from a still-forming planetary system, and that similar chunks of nitrogen ice may have been discharged from Pluto a long time ago. > **[1st known interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua is an 'exo-Pluto' — a completely new...](https://www.space.com/astronomy/dwarf-planets/1st-known-interstellar-visitor-oumuamua-is-an-exo-pluto-a-completely-new-class-of-object-scientists-say)** > > "'Oumuamua is in a different category of object. It's much harder to find, but there are a lot more of them." [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-object-from-another-solar-system/800014.md?page=2)