2nd interstellar visitor to our solar system confirmed and named

[brooklynite]

Source: CNN

An unusual object detected streaking across the sky last month was a comet that originated outside our solar system, observations have confirmed, becoming only the second observed interstellar object to cross into our solar system.

It has been named 2I/Borisov by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center. And it's anywhere between 1.2 and 10 miles in diameter, Karen Meech and her colleagues at the University of Hawaii say.

Observations by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Dynamics Group have supported that this comet has the most hyperbolic orbit out of the thousands of known comets.

"The orbit is now sufficiently well known, and the object is unambiguously interstellar in origin," according to a release by the IAU, which has designated the object as the second interstellar object, 2I.


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/24/world/second-interstellar-visitor-confirmed-scn-trnd/index.html

[ffr]

1. Science continues.

Which always gives me hope that there are others out there who long to know more.

[EX500rider]

2. Picture of it:

(I thinks it wants us to assimilate)

[wysimdnwyg]

4. Still better leaders than Trump (nt)

[lagomorph777]

5. My RW brother sent me a T-Shirt saying "Resistance is futile."

I might change it to "Resistance is fertile"

[Coventina]

7. Wait...so he's PROUD to be Borg?

[lagomorph777]

8. It's a nerdy shirt with a circuit diagram (which I can read)

Pre-2016, I would have automatically enjoyed it.

Now, it has a different meaning entirely.

[SpankMe]

3. Here's hoping that Trump's orbit is hyperbolic as well

...originating from outside the solar system, visiting only one single time, and then leaving the solar system forever.

[Grins]

6. Wait! What????

“Gennady Borisov spotted (the) new comet....The AMATEUR astronomer...”

He’s an amateur astronomer? Now that’s kool!

[lagomorph777]

9. I know, amazing!

[ck4829]

10. If he left, as rw'ers say, "science to the scientists" (Even though they ignore scientists)

Then this wouldn't have been spotted.