Though the orbital elements may be further refined, this is almost certainly an interstellar object; with an eccentricity of ~6, it's basically screaming out of interstellar space. Its estimated size (~20 km) is much greater than that of Borisov or ʻOumuamua.
Stay tuned!
https://earthsky.org/space/new-interstellar-object-candidate-heading-toward-the-sun-a11pl3z/
8 Comments
It’s extremely cool that this was observed using the ITelescope remote observatories as well that anyone can rent! I haven’t used them in years because it’s pretty pricey, but honestly it would be pretty cool as an amateur to make these sort of discoveries!
Looking at the trajectory and timing, I’m guessing it’s going to be towards the end of the year when it’ll be most “visible” since it will have passed the sun? I use visible loosely because of the distance making me doubt there’s any chance of it being visible to the eye, but rather being the time when we’re likely to be doing a lot of telescope observing.
Ok, no, I know, but “interstellar object coming straight towards our sun” did blink a brief “photoid warning” in my head. And even then, anything 20 Km across travelling in our general direction at 0.023% c sure does better miss.
Are there rockets that could quickly launch a probe to go take a look at it? Are there any probes that could be quickly available to do the looking?
I hope we can come up with a common name for it that’s easier to pronounce than either “A11pl3z” or “Oumuamua”.
It would be cool to get images/video of this potential interstellar visitor
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|——-|———|—|
|[ESA](/r/Space/comments/1lpw38s/stub/n11felx “Last usage”)|European Space Agency|
|[L2](/r/Space/comments/1lpw38s/stub/n0z8eiv “Last usage”)|[Lagrange Point](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point) 2 ([Sixty Symbols](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxpVbU5FH0s) video explanation)|
| |Paywalled section of the NasaSpaceFlight forum|
|[PSP](/r/Space/comments/1lpw38s/stub/n13nmpw “Last usage”)|Parker Solar Probe|
|Jargon|Definition|
|——-|———|—|
|[perihelion](/r/Space/comments/1lpw38s/stub/n13nmpw “Last usage”)|Lowest point in an elliptical orbit around the Sun (when the orbiter is fastest)|
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Is this the 2nd or 3rd interstellar object we’ve detected?
Have detection methods increased significantly, or we’re paying more attention? Crazy to think we hadn’t discovered any until recently and now we’re finding them within a few years of each other.