Oumuamua, the first interstellar visitor to our solar system (discovered 2017), sparked "alien spacecraft" speculation due to its unusual cigar-like shape, reddish color, and non-gravitational acceleration (speeding up as it left the Sun). While Harvard's Avi Loeb suggested it might be an alien probe, most scientists now favor natural explanations, such as outgassing of hidden hydrogen ice or frozen nitrogen, creating a jet propulsion effect that explains its unusual motion, making it a mysterious but likely natural object.
Oumuamua is a small object estimated to be between 100 and 1,000 metres (300 and 3,000 ft) long, with its width and thickness both estimated between 35 and 167 metres (115 and 548 ft).[13] It has a red color, like objects in the outer Solar System. Despite its close approach to the Sun, it showed no signs of having a coma, the usual nebula around comets formed when they pass near the Sun. Further, it exhibited non‑gravitational acceleration, potentially due to outgassing or a push from solar radiation pressure.

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