The present invention employs an object information acquiring apparatus having: a photoacoustic probe unit including a light irradiating unit which irradiates light, and a probe which receives a photoacoustic wave generated from an object irradiated with light while transmitting an ultrasound wave to the object and receiving a reflected wave thereof a processor configured to create image information of the object based on the photoacoustic wave and a controller configured to control irradiation with light, wherein when a first contact condition is defined as a condition in which the object is irradiated with light while the probe is acoustically matched with the object, the controller determines whether or not the photoacoustic probe unit is in the first contact condition by using the reflected wave and enables irradiation with light when the photoacoustic probe unit is in the first contact condition.