This page lists proposed and unconfirmed interstellar objects within the solar system. For confirmed interstellar objects see these pages:

• 1I 'Oumuamua
• 2I Borisov
• 3I ATLAS

(514107) Ka'epaoka'awela

In May 2018 Namouni and Morais (2018) concluded that asteroid (514107) 2015 BZ509 (later named Ka'epaoka'awela) was of interstellar origin based on integration of its orbit over long integration time periods. Ka'epaoka'awela is coorbital with Jupiter but with a retrograde orbit--semimajor axis of 5.140 AU, eccentricity of 0.3807, and inclination of 163.0°. The conclusion is based on finding that the current orbit is stable for multi-billion year timescales combined with the understanding that "planet formation models cannot produce such a primordial large inclination orbit." Currently, interstellar origin of (514107) Ka'epaoka'awela is at least in part model dependent.

Eight centaurs

In February 2019 Siraj and Loeb (2019) reported that eight Centaur-like asteroids had high probabilities of having been captured from interstellar space based on comparison of their orbits to orbits of hypothetical objects modeled as captured from interstellar space. These are (with estimated sizes):

• 2008 WA95 (2 km?)
• 2013 JD4 (2 km?)
• 2013 YG48 (1.6 km?)
• 2016 WS1 (1.5 km?)
• 2017 SV13 (1 km?)
• 2018 AS18 (3 km?)
• 2018 TL6 (0.5 km?)
• 2018 WB1 (1.8 km?)

The interpretation of interstellar origin for these objects is probabilistic, applying to the population of objects in similar orbits but not being definitive for any individual object.

Bolides

In April 2019 Siraj and Loeb (2019) proposed that a bolide observed on 8 January 2014 was of interstellar origin. The meteor, observed by U.S. satellites and reported in the CNEOS catalog had an estimated size of 0.5 meters and exploded in the atmosphere northeast of Papua New Guinea with an energy of 0.1 kilotons (CNEOS, 2019). The finding that it was of interstellar origin is based on backwards propagation using the CNEOS reported trajectory. Due to uncertainties in CNEOS trajectory data the identification is unconfirmed.

In June 2023 Loeb led an ocean expedition to recover putative debris from the 8 January 2014 bolide by dragging a magnetic sled across the seafloor. In January 2024 the team reported recovery of spherules some of which were claimed to be of potentially interstellar origin (Loeb et al., 2024). These interpretations have been disputed.

In February 2026 Cloete and Loeb (2026) reported proposed identification of two more CNEOS bolides as interstellar in origin. One was observed 28 July 2022 over the eastern Pacific, the other 12 February 2025 over the Barents Sea.

References

• Cloete, R., and A. Loeb, (9 February 2026), Two robust interstellar meteor candidates in the post-2018 CNEOS fireball database, arXiv, on line, 2602.08956.
• CNEOS, 2019, Fireballs, JPL, on line [https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/fireballs/].
• Loeb, A., et al., (18 January 2024), Chemical classification of spherules recovered from the Pacific Ocean site of the CNEOS 2014-01-08 (IM1) bolide, arXiv, on line, 2401.09882.
• Namouni, F., and M. H. M. Morais, 21 May 2018 (23 May 2018), An interstellar origin for Jupiter's retrograde co-orbital asteroid, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 477(1):L117-L121; arXiv, on line, 1805.09013.
• Siraj, A., and A. Loeb, 11 February 2019 (23 November 2018), Identifying interstellar objects trapped in the solar system through their orbital parameters, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 872(1):L10; arXiv, on line, 1811.09632.
• Siraj, A., and A. Loeb, (15 April 2019, updated 4 June 2019), Discovery of a meteor of interstellar origin, arXiv, on line, 1904.07224.

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Last modified 8 May 2026.
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