Astronomers have discovered a potentially interstellar comet — the second after 'Oumuamua — and it's approaching the Sun, with a perihelion in mid-2020.
© Universe Today
First there was '
Oumuamua. Now we might be in store for another interstellar flyby, this time by the recently discovered comet A/2019 Q1.
Gennady Borisov captured the object on August 30, 2019, at the
Crimean Astrophysical Observatory when it was about 5.5 astronomical units (a.u.) from the Sun. Unlike 'Oumuamua, which was discovered well after perihelion, the new comet is approaching the plane of the solar system and will reach perihelion on July 24, 2020 at a distance of 4.96 a.u., about the distance between Jupiter and the Sun.
But it's still early. Don't be surprised if these dates change as more observations come in.
What sets A/2019 Q1 apart from nearly every other comet is the
eccentricity of its orbit. Eccentricity measures how much an orbit deviates from a perfect circle, which has an eccentricity of 0. Elliptical orbits, typical of planets, asteroids and comets, have eccentricities between 0 and 1. Parabolas are equal to 1, and an eccentricity greater than 1 indicates a hyperbolic orbit.
© Stamcose / CC BY-SA 4.0 with additions by the author
How flat an object's orbit is called its eccentricity. An object on a hyperbolic orbit is likely from beyond the solar system.
Comment: See also the following previous meteor/fireball events in the Netherlands: