Posted on Dec 14, 2019

APOD: 2019 December 14 - Interstellar Comet 2I Borisov

Maj William W. 'Bill' Price

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Good morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "Interstellar Comet 2I Borisov." How do we know that 2I Borisov is an interstellar visitor? It's measured trajectory and speed as it fell toward the Sun (and now speeds away) confirm that its origin is from beyond our Solar System. 2I/Borisov made its closest approach to the Sun at on December 8, 2019. In November 2019, astronomer Pieter Van Dokken and three others captured an image from the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, noting that 2I/Borisov (including its coma and tail) was "14 times the size of Earth." Van Dokken observed “It’s humbling to realize how small Earth is next to this visitor from another solar system.”

APOD: 2019 December 14 - Interstellar Comet 2I Borisov

Posted from apod.nasa.gov

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Edited 5 y ago

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Maj Marty Hogan

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LTC Stephen F.

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Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Spied by Hubble

The Hubble Space Telescope captured imagery of interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov. -- What We Know So Far About Comet 2I/Borisov: https://videos.space.com/m/b0UYA...

Thank you, my friend Maj William W. 'Bill' Price for posting the NASA Astronomy [dual-image] Picture of the Day (APOD) for Saturday, December 14 entitled "Interstellar Comet 2I Borisov."
Image: Interstellar Comet 2I-Borisov - Image Credit - NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA) et al.
"Explanation: From somewhere else in the Milky Way galaxy, Comet 2I/Borisov is just visiting the Solar System. Discovered by Crimean amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov on August 30, 2019, the first known interstellar comet is captured in these two recent Hubble Space Telescope images. On the left, a distant background galaxy near the line-of-sight to Borisov is blurred as Hubble tracked the speeding comet and dust tail about 327 million kilometers from Earth. At right, 2I/Borisov appears shortly after perihelion, it's closest approach to Sun. Borisov's closest approach to our fair planet, a distance of about 290 million kilometers, will come on December 28. Even though Hubble's sharp images don't resolve the comet's nucleus, they do lead to estimates of less than 1 kilometer for its diameter."

Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Spied by Hubble
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=diu1AWFjXYw&feature=emb_logo

FYI Maj Marty Hogan TSgt Joe C. Sgt (Join to see) SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SGT Steve McFarland SSG Donald H "Don" Bates SPC Margaret Higgins SPC Woody Bullard COL Mikel J. Burroughs Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D.

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