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https://www.sciencealert.com/our-new-interstellar-visitor-is-now-official-and-it-has-a-name
The verdict is in: after a thorough round of observations, the comet suspected of being an interstellar alien has been ratified. According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the comet is "unambiguously" interstellar in origin, and it has now been given a name: 2I/Borisov.
Previously, the comet had been going by the provisional name C/2019 Q4 (Borisov). C means it's a comet with a hyperbolic orbit, followed by the year it was discovered, an alphanumeric code for when in the year it was discovered, and the comet name in parentheses - that's Crimean amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov, who spotted the comet with telescope he made himself.
The new name has been simplified. In 2I, I stands for "interstellar", and 2 for being the second interstellar object ever discovered, after 'Oumuamua, which was detected in October 2017.
Previously: Possible Second Interstellar Object Discovered
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 26 2019, @09:57PM
If you want to intercept an interstellar object to capture it or prevent it from hitting Earth, you would need very sensitive telescopes that could image it years in advance, so you could launch a mission years in advance.
ESA's upcoming comet mission will be launched with no target in mind: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/06/22/1811224 [soylentnews.org]
If the solar system was filled up with spacecraft like that, more transient events could be discovered at the very least.