The object in question traveled toward our solar system from the direction of Vega, a nearby star 25 light-years away, and intercepted our solar system’s orbital plane on Sept. 6, 2017. A picture of it looks something like a cigar or a log washed up on Cannon beach that had been through a fire, now called ‘Oumuamua."which is Hawaiian for — roughly — “scout.” .  It was named this because it was spotted by an observatory in Hawaii.