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The Gemini Observatory in Hawaii has captured a new revealing image of a mysterious object that is probably the first interstellar comet that man has detected.
The comet, called C / 2019 Q4, seems to be heading towards our solar system from a point of unknown origin in another star system.
Astronomers have pointed a Gemini telescope, located at the top of the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii on September 10th. Spanish astronomers have also used the telescope William Herschel from La Palma to get a glimpse.
Together, the telescopes revealed a hazy haze of dust surrounding the object, as well as a "weak tail" of gas trailing behind the object, according to a team of researchers in Poland who analyzed the sightings . These are two "canonical signatures" of a comet, they said.
Read more: NASA claims that a new comet is probably an "interstellar visitor" from another star system – the second never detected
The results have been made available online in the arXiv repository, but have not yet been peer-reviewed. However, they provide further evidence that the comet does indeed have interstellar origins.
"The orbital and morphological properties of this body show that it is the first case of interstellar comet," wrote the authors of the study.
Scientists are trying to confirm that the C / 2019 Q4 is coming from another stellar system
Gennady Borisov, amateur astronomer from Crimea, first saw the C / 2019 Q4 in the sky on August 30th. Since then, astronomers around the world have been trying to determine whether the comet has an elliptical orbit (oval-shaped and around the sun) or hyperbolic (in the form of a tick and in an open trajectory).
It seems much more likely that its path is hyperbolic, although it needs more observations to know for sure. Astronomers are trying to determine the eccentricity of C / 2019 Q4 or its extreme orbit.
"The error indicates that it is still possible that this is in the solar system," had already told Business Insider Olivier Hainaut, astronomer at the Southern European Observatory. "But this error decreases as we get more and more data and the eccentricity seems interstellar."
If the measure of eccentricity is less than 1, says Hainaut, it indicates an object coming from our solar system. If it's bigger, it suggests that it's an interstellar object. The researchers behind the Gemini observations say that their data show an eccentricity of at least 3.
This object is different from 'Oumuamua
The first interstellar object ever detected, the mysterious cigar-shaped Oumuamua, traveled our solar system in 2017.
& # 39; Oumuamua did not show comet features of C / 2019 Q4. In fact, Oumuamua did not look at all like the kind of interstellar object that scientists expected to see. This has led some to argue that it may have been of foreign origin, although this is highly improbable.
This new comet seems to correspond more to the expectations of scientists concerning the objects of other stellar systems.
"The discovery of this object indicates that interstellar comets could be common and creates a tremendous opportunity to study in detail the first object of this type," wrote the authors of the study.
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