A potential interstellar object has been spotted zipping through our solar system, and amateur and professional astronomers around the world are now racing to train their telescopes in its direction, allowing them to refine models of its trajectory and officially confirm that it is a visitor from another star.
The object – provisionally called A11pl3Z – would be only the third interstellar object we have seen. The asteroid ‘Oumuamua was spotted in October 2017, three days after it made its closest approach to Earth, and was controversial because its unusual acceleration led to suggestions from some quarters – now thoroughly debunked – that it could be an alien spaceship. A second object, comet Borisov, was seen in 2019, and because it was spotted earlier in its journey through the solar system we were able to observe it in more detail.
Source: www.newscientist.com
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