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A
newly discovered comet excited the astronomical community this week because
it seems to come from outside the solar system. The object –
designated C / 2019 Q4 (Borisov) – was discovered on August 30, 2019 by Gennady Borisov at the MARGO show
observatory in Nauchnij, Crimea. The official confirmation that comet C / 2019 Q4
is an interstellar comet has not been made yet, but if it's interstellar it
would only be the second object of this type detected. The first, Oumuamua, was observed and confirmed
in October 2017.
the
The new comet, C / 2019 Q4, is still moving towards the Sun, but it will remain
further than the orbit of Mars and will approach no closer to Earth than about
190 million miles (300 million kilometers).
After
the initial detections of the comet, Scout
system,
which is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, automatically
marked the object as possibly interstellar. Davide Farnocchia from NASA's Near-Earth Objects Research Center at JPL worked with
Astronomers and Coordination of Near Earth Objects of the European Space Agency
Frascati Center, Italy, for additional comments. He then worked
with the NASA-sponsored Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to estimate
precise trajectory of the comet and determine if it originated in our
solar system or come from elsewhere in the galaxy.
the
The comet is currently 420 million kilometers from the Sun and
reach its nearest point, or perihelion, on December 8, 2019, at a distance of about
190 million miles (300 million kilometers).
"The
the current speed of the comet is high, about 93,000 mph [150,000 kph], the good thing is
above the typical speeds of objects orbiting the Sun at this distance, "
said Farnocchia. "High speed not only indicates that the object is likely
comes from outside our solar system, but also that he will leave and head
return to interstellar space ".
Currently
on the incoming trajectory, the comet C / 2019 Q4 is moving towards the inner solar
system and will enter on October 26 from above roughly a 40-degree angle
compared to the ecliptic plane. It is the plane in which the Earth and the planets gravitate around the Sun.
C / 2019
Q4 was established as cometary because of its fuzzy appearance, which
indicates that the object has a central icy body that produces a
surrounding cloud of dust and particles as the sun approaches and heats up.
Its position in the sky (seen from the Earth) places it near the sun – an area
from the sky not usually swept up by large asteroid surveys on the ground or NASA
NEOWISE, asteroid hunter.
C / 2019
Q4 can be seen with professional telescopes for the coming months. "The
the luminosity of the object reaches its maximum in mid-December and remains observable
with medium-sized telescopes until April 2020, "Farnocchia said." After
that it can not be observed with larger professional telescopes than
October 2020. "
Observations completed
by Karen Meech and her team from the University of Hawaii state the nucleus of the comet
is between 1.2 and 10 miles (2 and 16 kilometers) in diameter. astronomers
will continue to gather observations to better characterize the comet's physics
properties (size, rotation, etc.) and continue to better identify its
path.
the Minor
Planet Center
is hosted by the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Center and is a subnode
from NASA's small body node of the planetary data system to the University of Maryland.
JPL hosts the Center for Near-Earth Objects Studies. All are NASA projects
Near-Earth Observations Program and Planetary Elements of the Agency
Defense Coordination Office within the NASA Science Missions Directorate.
More information about
Asteroids and objects near the Earth are available at the following address:
https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch
For more information on
NASA Global Defense Coordination Office, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense
For
news and updates of asteroids and comets, follow AsteroidWatch on Twitter:
Media contact
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
818-393-9011
[email protected]
?
Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-672-4780
[email protected]
2019-185
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