Has another interstellar visitor been found?
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49676757

Yes!!!


An amateur astronomer has discovered a comet that could come from outside our Solar System.

If so, it would be the second interstellar object after the elongated body known as 'Oumuamua was identified in 2017.

The Minor Planet Center (MPC) at Harvard University has issued a formal announcement of the discovery.

The body appears to have a "hyperbolic" orbit, which would appear to indicate its origin in another planetary system.

A hyperbolic orbit is an eccentric one, where the shape deviates substantially from that of a perfect circle.

A perfect circle has an eccentricity of 0. The elliptical orbits of many planets, asteroids and comets have eccentricities between 0 and 1.

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Has another interstellar visitor been found?
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49676757

Yes!!!


An amateur astronomer has discovered a comet that could come from outside our Solar System.

If so, it would be the second interstellar object after the elongated body known as 'Oumuamua was identified in 2017.

The Minor Planet Center (MPC) at Harvard University has issued a formal announcement of the discovery.

The body appears to have a "hyperbolic" orbit, which would appear to indicate its origin in another planetary system.

A hyperbolic orbit is an eccentric one, where the shape deviates substantially from that of a perfect circle.

A perfect circle has an eccentricity of 0. The elliptical orbits of many planets, asteroids and comets have eccentricities between 0 and 1.

A Parabola has an eccentricity of exactly 1, Hyperbolas have eccentricities of greater than 1.
Everything with an eccentricity of 1 or greater isn't in orbit, it is not coming back. One time visit only. (Well on this trip around the galaxy, something else might deflect it and send it back our way in a few billion years.)

Has another interstellar visitor been found? - BBC News 
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49676757

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Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020

They have spectra, now, of the new interstellar interloper. They say that these are 'not unlike' those of certain known comets in our solar system. Others call it 'somewhat like'. The reason for this hedging is apparent. The spectra are noticeably weaker in green (0.5 microns) and a good deal stronger than expected in orange (0.6 microns) than in the best cometary matches they can find. I think we'll find that C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) will have a number of interesting surprises for us.
Please find, below, a link to a brief announcement of the spectroscopy, including a photograph of the object with a 10 meter class telescope, and a chart showing the spectrum:

http://www.iac.es/divulgacion.php?op1=16&id=1610&lang=en

2nd interstellar visitor to our solar system confirmed and named
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/24/world/second-interstellar-visitor-confirmed-scn-trnd/index.html

(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.

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thread title post edited.

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Never heard of this in a comet?

Astronomers Detect Cyanide Gas in Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov
http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/cyanide-gas-interstellar-comet-2i-borisov-07637.html

CN, often referred to as cyanogen, is a toxic gas made of carbon and nitrogen atoms.

It is one of the most-widely studied gases in solar system comets.

CN in the coma of a comet is thought to be produced when a gas called hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is broken apart by sunlight. It fluoresces at blue and near-UV wavelengths, as well as in the red.

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Back in the day, widespread panics occured worldwide when it was learned Earth would find itself caught in Halley's poisonous tail.

Apocalypse postponed: how Earth survived Halley's comet in 1910 | Stuart Clark | Science | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/2012/dec/20/apocalypse-postponed-halley-comet

Never heard of this in a comet?

Astronomers Detect Cyanide Gas in Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov
http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/cyanide-gas-interstellar-comet-2i-borisov-07637.html

CN, often referred to as cyanogen, is a toxic gas made of carbon and nitrogen atoms.

It is one of the most-widely studied gases in solar system comets.

CN in the coma of a comet is thought to be produced when a gas called hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is broken apart by sunlight. It fluoresces at blue and near-UV wavelengths, as well as in the red.

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Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020

Never heard of this in a comet?

Astronomers Detect Cyanide Gas in Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov
http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/cyanide-gas-interstellar-comet-2i-borisov-07637.html

CN, often referred to as cyanogen, is a toxic gas made of carbon and nitrogen atoms.

It is one of the most-widely studied gases in solar system comets.

CN in the coma of a comet is thought to be produced when a gas called hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is broken apart by sunlight. It fluoresces at blue and near-UV wavelengths, as well as in the red.

Yes, of course. Thanks for all the information, Pierre :)

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Newly discovered comet is confirmed as an interstellar visitor – with a surprisingly familiar look
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/10/14/comet-interstellar-visitor-outer-space-borisov/3973531002/

A newly discovered comet is definitely from outside our solar system, scientists confirmed in a study published Monday.

The study said that despite the comet's interstellar origin, it looks surprisingly similar to comets from within the solar system.

It's only the second interstellar comet ever detected in our solar system and the first that looks like a traditional comet, the study says. The first one, cigar-shaped 'Oumuamua, which was discovered in 2017, did not resemble a comet in the usual sense:

It's an asteroid?

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