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posted by janrinok on Thursday November 28 2019, @02:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the here-she-comes-did-I-just-assume-its-gender? dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Interstellar comet Borisov gets the close-up ghostly glamour shot it deserves

Interstellar comet 2l/Borisov is only the second known object to visit our solar system from the great wide universe beyond. (Oddball Oumuamua was the first.) It's no wonder we can't stop staring at it.

Yale astronomers snapped a new close-up image of the comet that gives one of the best looks yet at this cosmic stranger. The image comes from the W.M. Keck Observatory's Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer in Hawaii.

We're hitting prime viewing time for the comet, which will make its closet approach to Earth in December when it zips by at a spacious distance of 190 million miles (300 million kilometers) away.

Borisov is warming up as it gets closer to our sun. According to Yale, the center of the comet is roughly a mile in width, but its tail stretches out to nearly 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers). The image shows this central mass as well as a fuzzy halo of gas and dust trailing behind it. The astronomers described it as "ghostly."


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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 28 2019, @02:34AM (8 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday November 28 2019, @02:34AM (#925520)

    https://xkcd.com/605/ [xkcd.com]

    Extrapolating (observed) interstellar bodies on a collision course with our solar system... could get scary fast. Is Bruce Willis available for another COMET! movie?

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  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday November 28 2019, @02:51AM (4 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Thursday November 28 2019, @02:51AM (#925523)

    Visitors from BEYOND THE STAAAAAARS!! might be quite common. We are only just now figuring out how to spot them.

    Unlike husbands which are rare.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @02:57AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @02:57AM (#925526)

      Unlike husbands which are rare.

      Your opposition to the Panspermia theory is noted. Vessels have been dispatched.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @12:40PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @12:40PM (#925619)

      Unlike husbands which are rare.

      Not rare, not unstoppable, just unspottable.

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 28 2019, @02:35PM (1 child)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday November 28 2019, @02:35PM (#925635)

      We've had telescopes for hundreds of years, and a pretty good grasp on orbital mechanics and escape velocity for at least a hundred...

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      • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday November 28 2019, @07:40PM

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Thursday November 28 2019, @07:40PM (#925743)

        True, but the couple we have spotted are small, fast, and appear in places that we haven't really been looking.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday November 28 2019, @04:00AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 28 2019, @04:00AM (#925546) Journal

    Extrapolating (observed) interstellar bodies on a collision course with our solar system... could get scary fast.

    The sad thing here is that the extrapolation in question is actually going to understate the number of such interstellar bodies passing through our system as detection of these objects improves.

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday November 28 2019, @04:44AM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Thursday November 28 2019, @04:44AM (#925559) Journal

    The first successful prediction of an asteroid impact [wikipedia.org] happened in... 2008. We have had some advance warning for 5 impacts so far. Now we have been able to detect 2 interstellar objects entering the solar system since 2017.

    The next step (besides detecting all of the impactors and millions of interstellar visitors each year) is to find the rogue planets or wandering black holes that are on a collision course with our solar system. If the trajectory is just right, you won't be calling Bruce.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @12:57PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 28 2019, @12:57PM (#925623)

      Now we have been able lucky to detect 2 interstellar objects entering the solar system since 2017.

      FTFY

      Last one was discovered by an amateur using a DIY telescope [wikipedia.org] (i.e not paid or enrolled in a dedicated program) and took 12 days worth of observations to decide it is extrasolar.

      The first one was first observed after it passed the closest point to the Sun [wikipedia.org] (i.e. while leaving the Solar System).

      The next step (besides detecting all of the impactors and millions of interstellar visitors each year) is to find the rogue planets or wandering black holes that are on a collision course with our solar system

      We'd better start looking after dark matter black holes, they're tricksy.