Astronomy / Space Interstellar comet Borisov is the most pristine space object ever seen

The interstellar comet Borisov is unlike anything from our own solar system. Two studies of the light passing from the comet’s coma – the cloud of dust and gas that envelopes a comet as it hurtles through space – have revealed that it is more pristine than any other object we have seen before.

Borisov was spotted in August 2019, and its trajectory through the solar system indicated that it must have come from another star. It was the second interstellar object ever discovered after the asteroid ‘Oumuamua, which was spotted on its way out of the solar system, giving astronomers very little time to study it. Because Borisov was spotted earlier in its journey through the solar system, we were able to observe it in more detail.
 
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