Science is Fun Fridays!

Credits: NASA, ESA, and J. DePasquale

Meet Comet 2I/Borisov.

Hubble caught this image on October 12 - the speed and trajectory suggest this object has come from beyond our solar system, and is therefore the first confirmed interstellar comet.

Scientists hope to obtain "invaluable clues to the chemical composition, structure, and dust characteristics of planetary building blocks."

The comet was photographed 260 million miles from Earth.  It is following a hyperbolic path around the Sun, and is expected to make its closest approach to the Sun in December.  By the middle of 2020, it is expected to pass Jupiter on its way out of our solar system.


Crimean astronomer, Gennady Borisov, first spotted the comet in August.

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