Artist’s concept of interstellar object1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua) as it passed through the solar system after its discovery in October 2017. Image Credit: European Southern Observatory / M. Kornmesser

The first interstellar object to be discovered was ‘Oumuamua, detected in 2017. Joined by Comet 2I/Borisov a couple of years later, astronomers are eagerly awaiting further discoveries of such objects, which were ejected from other solar systems.

We explore what the link is between these interstellar objects and the history of star formation around the galaxy, thanks to new research by Prof Chris Lintott (University of Oxford), Dr Ted Mackereth (University of Toronto, Canada) and Dr Michele Bannister (University of Canterbury, New Zealand).

Chris and Ted explain how these two seemingly disconnected fields have led to new hypotheses about what we might learn from future observations.