That interstellar asteroid probably came from a solar system with two suns

Remember the interstellar asteroid that zipped through our solar system last year? It likely came from a very alien place.

According to a new study, the asteroid, named 'Oumuamua, probably came from a solar system with two stars.

(Perhaps the best analog for this kind of binary system is actually in fiction. In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine orbits two stars, or suns. A star is a "sun" if it's the center of a planetary system.)

Via Giphy

Researchers have some good reasons for thinking that 'Oumuamua — which clocks in at an impressive 1,312 feet long — came to our solar system by way of a binary system.

Models used in the new study, published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, show that binary systems are likely to spit out asteroids and comets onto interstellar trajectories at the same rate.

That's different, of course, from our solar system.

"It's really odd that the first object we would see from outside our system would be an asteroid, because a comet would be a lot easier to spot and the solar system ejects many more comets than asteroids," Alan Jackson, one of the authors of the new study, said in a statement.

In all likelihood, the Empire State Building-sized asteroid was kicked out of its home system when planets in that system were first forming, which probably occurred billions of years ago.

The new study also suggests that the composition of the asteroid may indicate it came from a binary system with a "relatively hot, high-mass star" because those kinds of stars would have more rocky material near them, according to the statement.

Since that time, the asteroid had been wandering alone through the universe — until scientists spotted it using the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii as it flew through our little part of space.

That observation marked the first time scientists have caught sight of an interstellar asteroid, though researchers estimate that one of these kinds of space rocks zooms through our solar system each year.

Scientists quickly turned telescopes toward 'Oumuamua to try to figure out all they could about the asteroid before it sped away from us forever. Some researchers even scanned the asteroid for signs of possible life, but it looks like they didn't find anything.

Even if 'Oumuamua wasn't sent by aliens, at least scientists are still learning all they can about it as they piece together its complicated history in deep space.

"The same way we use comets to better understand planet formation in our own solar system, maybe this curious object can tell us more about how planets form in other systems," Jackson said.