Astronomers are scrambling to gather data on a mysterious object that’s currently hurtling through the solar system. Preliminary observations suggest it came from interstellar space, and if confirmed, it would mark the third discovery of an interstellar object in history.

An object thought to have come from another star has been seen entering the solar system at high speed, and is expected to whip around the sun in the coming months

Astronomy news always seems to break over coffee, on laptop startup. That was the case on Wednesday morning, when word of a curious new object started flashing across the message boards.