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Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
Thu Nov 28, 2019, 05:07 PM Nov 2019

An alien comet from another star is streaking through our solar system





By SARAH KAPLAN | The Washington Post | Published: November 28, 2019

SEWANEE, Tenn. — Something strange is sailing toward us. Something small and cold and extraordinarily fast. No one knows where it came from, or where it is going. But it's not from around here.

This is an interstellar comet — an ancient ball of ice and gas and dust, formed on the frozen outskirts of a distant star, which some lucky quirk of gravity has tossed into our path.

To astronomers, the comet is a care package from the cosmos — a piece of a place they will never be able to visit, a key to all the worlds they cannot directly observe.

It is only the second interstellar interloper scientists have seen in our solar system. And it's the first one they've been able to get a good look at. By tracking the comet's movement, measuring its composition and monitoring its behavior, researchers are seeking clues about the place it came from and the space it crossed to get here. They have already found a carbon-based molecule and possibly water — two familiar chemicals in such an alien object.

More:
https://www.stripes.com/news/us/an-alien-comet-from-another-star-is-streaking-through-our-solar-system-1.609100
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An alien comet from another star is streaking through our solar system (Original Post) Judi Lynn Nov 2019 OP
dang. dont we have something that can meet up w it? mopinko Nov 2019 #1
Bad vacation keithbvadu2 Nov 2019 #2
I kind of wondered why the deadline was Suwannee, TN, and sure enough ... eppur_se_muova Nov 2019 #3
The Ramans do everything in threes.......... lastlib Nov 2019 #4

eppur_se_muova

(36,227 posts)
3. I kind of wondered why the deadline was Suwannee, TN, and sure enough ...
Thu Nov 28, 2019, 07:16 PM
Nov 2019

The first astronomer to confirm the sighting works at The University of the South, in Sewanee. Visited there once, applied for a job there once.

He used a 12" Schmidt-Cass but had to use image stacking to actually capture an image -- so nothing for naked-eye viewers with smaller scopes yet.

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