Astronomy / Space Second Interstellar Object to Visit Solar System Confirmed, Named After Amateur Astronomer

[Manticore]

Named 2I/Borisov, after Gennady Borisov – a telescope maker and astronomer living in Crimea who has discovered seven other comets – the object was determined to be a comet that originated outside the Solar System. This makes it the second interstellar object and the first ever interstellar comet to visit the Solar System.

Second Interstellar Object to Visit Solar System Confirmed, Named After Amateur Astronomer

The first interstellar comet and the second interstellar object to enter our Solar System in modern history, it was originally discovered by a telescope maker with a solid history of newly-identified comets.

sputniknews.com

 

[WeComeInPeace]

This is actually a pretty interesting story. I wonder when a large spherical object with DS-1 written on the side will be spotted.

Thumbs up to Borisov! Finding this one beats finding a needle in a haystack by a ly.

To potential amateur astronomers reading this: Always, always blink your subs after they've been aligned to see if something is moving. Once you stack them, whatever pixel rejection you use will remove any object that is moving through the field. You can also stack the aligned subs without pixel rejection and look for a straight line.

99.9% of the cases it has already been cataloged, but it's the rare cases that count

 

[Para Handy]

I posted this thread two weeks ago:

Astronomy / Space - New interstellar visitor discovered?

In light of the thread marking 30 years since the Moon went wandering in Space 1999 I thought people might be interested in yet another object going the opposite way and visiting our solar system from outside it. This time though there is no doubt that it is a comet...

forums.frontier.co.uk

... and it has its own Wikipedia page:

2I/Borisov - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

... and the main news to be taken from the OP is that the nomenclature is 2 I (that's the letter I) Borisov meaning the second Interstellar astronomical object as the Minor Planets Centre of the IAU had enough observations to confirm it was extra-solar in origin. (Previously it had the nomenclature Comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) ).

 

[WeComeInPeace]

I think ʻOumuamua was an astonishing discovery. As we space travellers know, the distances between solar systems is enormous, so the chance of some interstellar debris getting close enough to Sol to being caught by gravity is very low. It might be that there is way more debris out there than we thought.

Years ago when I started being interested in astronomy, I remember having questions no one could answer, like what happens when two black holes collide. After I started comparing some of my own images with images that were taken only a few years earlier, I also noticed that some stars move a lot, like this one:

AstroBin

www.astrobin.com

A thought that really blew my mind was a rouge black hole passing through our solar system, making the garden furniture raise to the sky like ballons. I tried simulating it in Universe Sandbox, and it becomes a mess, with the planets moving out of their orbits, resulting in a giant pool game, so perhaps it's best that the garden furniture stays.

Btw. Is there an amateur astronomy thread on this forum?

 

[Para Handy]

............... Is there an amateur astronomy thread on this forum?

There used to be an Astronomy sub-forum but it got binned on the forum move - now we just have the Astronomy/Space "label" thingie in this Off-Topic sub-forum.