It's official! The suspected interstellar comet Borisov is beyond our solar system

A comet spotted in late August is officially a interstellar object, according to the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

The verdict means that the object, tentatively called Comet C / 2019, is now dubbed 2I / Borisov, with the prefix indicating that the comet is the second interstellar object that scientists have identified to date; the first was 1I / Oumuamua, which had been seen for the first time in October 2017.

"The orbit is now sufficiently known and the object is unambiguously of interstellar origin; he received his definitive designation as second interstellar object, 2I, "the AIU wrote in a statement. Borisov's name pays homage to his discoverer, the amateur astronomer of Crimea, Gennady Borisov, the statement added.

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In early September, scientists speculated, from the initial data, that the the object was interstellar, but IAU held out for more comments before publishing the statement yesterday (24 September).

To make this decision, the scientists tracked the comet's location long enough to confirm that the comet had an extremely hyperbolic orbit, a wide arc that was moving in one direction and then went into another, designating it as a object coming through our solar system. 2I / Borisov has a more hyperbolic path than any other comet scientists have studied to date, wrote the IAU. (Objects born in our solar system are trapped in elliptical orbits around the sun that look like crushed circles.)

These observations also allowed scientists to calculate when 2I / Borisov will get closer to the sun. On December 7, the comet will pass in front of the sun over a distance of 300 million kilometers, about twice the distance between the Earth and the sun (150 million km). At about the same time, the comet will be visible only from the southern hemisphere. 2I / Borisov will be easier to spot from Earth in December and January, but will remain observable until later in 2020.

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