Observations from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed that the recently discovered object 'Oumuamua' (pronounced oh-MOO-ah-MOO-ah) from outside our Solar System has an extremely unusual, highly elongated shape, possibly resembling a cigar or a pancake. Its surface also darkens and brightens over a few hours with extreme contrast changes. Its elongated shape would also mean that as 'Oumuamua' rotates, its surface temperature changes drastically between very hot and very cold.

"For the first time, we may be observing an object that was ejected very recently from a planet in another system,” says Olivier Hainaut, one of the co-authors of the study.