Astronomers take a picture of the second known interstellar object – BGR



[ad_1]

The world of astronomy received a rare treat last week when an alleged object belonging to the outside of our own solar system was only spotted for the second time in its history . At the time, very little was known about the interstellar visitor, but since its initial discovery by a skywatcher lover, very powerful telescopes have been directed at the object to make it more visible.

At present, the Gemini Observatory has published a superb image of the object, named C / 2019 Q4 (Borisov). The object, which is now considered a comet, is easily identifiable thanks to its foggy cone-shaped tail.

Detecting objects that may come from outside our own little stellar neighborhood can be difficult, but this particular comet has revealed its nature quite quickly. The comet zoomed in on our system from an angle that clearly showed that it did not come from here.

This animation of NASA shows the estimated path of the comet:

"The current speed of the comet is high, about 93,000 mph. [150,000 kph], which is well above the typical speeds of objects orbiting the Sun at this distance, "said Davide Farnocchia of NASA's Near Object Studies Center in a statement." High Speed ​​Indicates No only that the object probably comes from outside our solar system, but also that it will leave and return to interstellar space. "

On the basis of current observations, the comet is moving towards the internal solar system and at the end of October, it will cross the flat plane that defines the orbits of the planets of our system. This means that it will remain visible for several months, which will leave astronomers all the time to study it and perhaps even to calculate its origin.

Image Source: Gemini Observatory / NSF / AURA

[ad_2]

Source link