A small asteroid or comet that has been spotted racing through our solar system may have come from elsewhere in the galaxy, US space scientists say, possibly marking the first such interstellar visitor observed from Earth. The mystery object, so far known only as A/2017 U1, was discovered earlier this month by a researcher using a sophisticated telescope system at the Hawaii University that continually scans the universe. “We have been waiting for this day for decades,” said Paul Chodas, manager of the National Aerona-utics and Space Administration’s Centre for Near Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, California.