Interstellar object found visiting our Solar System, named 2I/Borisov

A new object from interstellar has been found within solar system, only second such discovery of its kind, according to International Astromical Union (IAU). object, given name 2I/Borisov by IAU, offers a tantalizing glimpse beyond solar system, and raises some puzzling questions, IAU said in a statement. 

Object with a comet-like appearance

On August 30 this year, amateur astromer Gennady Borisov from MARGO observatory, Crimea, discovered object with a comet-like appearance. object has a condensed coma, and more recently a short tail has been observed, IAU said. Borisov made this discovery with a 0.65-metre telescope he built himself, according to IAU. After a week of observations by amateur and professional astromers all over world, IAU Mir Planet Center was able to compute a preliminary orbit, which suggested this object was interstellar -- only second such object kwn to have passed through solar system.

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Named as 2I/Borisov

orbit is w sufficiently well kwn, and object is unambiguously interstellar in origin; it has received its final designation as second interstellar object, 2I, statement said. IAU has decided to follow tradition of naming cometary objects after ir discoverers, so object has been named 2I/Borisov. Of thousands of comets discovered so far, ne has an orbit as hyperbolic as that of 2I/Borisov, IAU said. This conclusion is independently supported by NASA JPL Solar System Dynamics Group, statement said. 

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Closest approach to Sun on December 7

Coming just two years after discovery of first interstellar object 1I/"Oumuamua, new finding suggests that such objects may be sufficiently numerous to provide a new way of investigating processes in planetary systems beyond our own. 2I/Borisov will make its closest approach to Sun, its perihelion, on December 7, when it will be two astromical units (AU) from Sun and also 2 AU from Earth. By December and January, it is expected that it will be at its brightest in sourn sky. It will n begin its outbound journey, eventually leaving solar system forever. Astromers are erly observing this object, which will be continuously observable for many months, a period longer than that of its predecessor, 1I/"Oumuamua. Astromers are optimistic about ir chances of studying this rare guest in great detail. Estimates of sizes of comets are difficult because small cometary nucleus is embedded in coma, but, from observed brightness, 2I/Borisov appears to be around a few kilometers in diameter.

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