Solar system observers had a very peculiar object to observe back in 2017. Called the Oumuamua, it was not sure whether it was a comet or an asteroid. But what attracted everyone was its incredible speed and the way it was spinning around the sun and went back into space. But scientists were not sure about the origin of this object, it clearly wasn't from our solar system but where was it from. Months of research later, researchers have found the origins of Oumuamua to four stars and their gravity which tugged off the object on a long journey. Origin of Life From Asteroids? Japan's Spacecraft Hayabusa 2 is Arriving at Asteroid Ryugu to Find Out. 

To find out more about the origins, researchers studied a huge amount of data from European Space Agency’s Gaia space observatory to first find the exact locations of the stars. This helped in precisely pinpointing where nearby stars are located and then their gravity calculations. The possible stars that could have given Oumuamua are red dwarf HIP 3757, sunlike star HD 292249, and two other stars, whose names haven't been kept yet. All these are dwarf stars and no observed records on them. NASA Has Discovered a Rare Double Asteroid 2017 YE5 Revolving Around Each Other. 

In appearance, Oumuamua is a massive puzzle that is beginning to solve. It is long and narrow like a cigar but its speed had sent scientists into studying what it was. But despite finding this information, the behaviour of the object is still in question. From asteroid to a comet, the tag of this object also changed. It is said that gravitational pull could have slowed it down and pushed along with the gasses. But there is still a lot of data that the scientists will have to study more to find more about the mysterious object.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 27, 2018 10:31 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).