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Researchers observe the first known interstellar comet
engadget ^ | 10/25/2017 | Jon Fingas

Posted on 10/26/2017 6:45:17 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts

To date, every comet humanity has seen inside the Solar System has come from the Solar System, whether it's the Kuiper Belt or the billions of comets believed to make up the Oort Cloud. Now, however, it looks like astronomers might have found a comet of interstellar origin.

They've used Hawaii's Pan-STARRS 1 telescope to track C/2017 U1, an object with a very eccentric, hyperbolic orbit (that is, moving quickly enough to escape gravitational pull) that wasn't connected to the Sun. The trajectory suggests that it's a comet which escaped from a nearby star, rather than something knocked out a familiar path and drawn in by the Sun's gravity.

These are preliminary findings, and there's more work to be done before researchers can be completely sure. If they confirm the orbit, though, it'll expand our understanding of space: we'll have tangible evidence that star systems can "swap" comets if the circumstances are right. The concept wasn't far-fetched given that comets are fairly common, but it's good to have tangible proof.


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: amirsiraj; asteroid; astronomy; aviloeb; c2017u1; catastrophism; comet; harvard; hyperbolic; interstellar; interstellarobject; jasonwright; oumuamua; science; shmuelbialy; yurimilner
Searched and found no current article posted.

Graphic at source shows the path coming rather close to Earth but there is no specifics given.

1 posted on 10/26/2017 6:45:17 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
Researchers observe the first known interstellar comet

Grab your purple shrouds and put on your Nikes!

2 posted on 10/26/2017 6:47:34 AM PDT by The Sons of Liberty (Uranium One = BRIBERY and TREASON - HANG THEM ALL!!!!)
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To: The Sons of Liberty

Hehe...the first thing that popped in to my head was, “That’s no moon.”


3 posted on 10/26/2017 6:58:17 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts ("Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment." - Will Rogers)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

If it starts to slow down, grab the lasers.


4 posted on 10/26/2017 7:00:27 AM PDT by Mouton (The MSM is a clear and present danger to the republic.)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

The chances of an object leaving one star’s gravity and being pulled in by another star’s gravity are very very very small. I mean really small. There is a lot of distance between stars, so much that if two galaxies collided, the stars wouldn’t come anywhere near hitting each other.


5 posted on 10/26/2017 7:07:31 AM PDT by Genoa (Luke 12:2)
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To: Genoa

True, however when multiple bodies interact weird stuff happens. It could have been accelerated out.


6 posted on 10/26/2017 8:08:41 AM PDT by phormer phrog phlyer
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

When did they clean the telescope lens last?


7 posted on 10/26/2017 8:14:07 AM PDT by Delta 21 (Build The Wall !! Jail The Cankle !!)
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To: phormer phrog phlyer

Yes, but it had to be very lucky to end up living in our neighborhood. I guess there’s a first time for everything.


8 posted on 10/26/2017 8:15:44 AM PDT by Genoa (Luke 12:2)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
Graphic at source shows the path coming rather close to Earth but there is no specifics given.

Sky and Telescope magazine, the source for the article in Engadget, says "It passed closest to Earth on October 14th at a distance of about 24,000,000 km (15,000,000 miles)". It has an estimated diameter of 525 feet. Big enough to ruin your whole day.

There have been comets in the past whose orbits were suspected to be hyperbolic. Later analysis has always shown them to have originated in the Solar System. I suspect the same will happen to this one.

9 posted on 10/26/2017 8:25:44 AM PDT by InABunkerUnderSF (Bye Bye Jeff!!!)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
It might be an interstellar comet. Then again it might just be a comet that ran into another object in the oort cloud, and had it's trajectory deflected to one that appears interstellar. Of course, that wouldn't get a big headline.
10 posted on 10/26/2017 12:25:28 PM PDT by zeugma (I always wear my lucky red shirt on away missions!)
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To: InABunkerUnderSF

Would not want to get hit by one of those, I.E Larry Niven.


11 posted on 10/26/2017 1:30:30 PM PDT by MSgtRock
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To: 75thOVI; Abathar; agrace; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AndrewC; aragorn; aristotleman; ...

Thanks Bloody Sam Roberts.
To date, every comet humanity has seen inside the Solar System has come from the Solar System, whether it's the Kuiper Belt or the billions of comets believed to make up the Oort Cloud.
If the brain's workin' right today, a comet with a parbolic trajectory originated in (or at least, has been captured by) this Solar System; a hyperbolic trajectory indicates an interstellar object. Ping-a-roo, everybody.


12 posted on 10/27/2017 12:59:58 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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An oldie, from the 'ard drive, a nice sidebar:
Rogue Planet Find Makes Astronomers Ponder Theory
by Maggie Fox
October 5, 2000
Eighteen rogue planets that seem to have broken all the rules about being born from a central, controlling sun may force a rethink about how planets form, astronomers said on Thursday... "The formation of young, free-floating, planetary-mass objects like these is difficult to explain by our current models of how planets form," Zapatero-Osorio said... They are not linked to one another in an orbit, but do move together as a cluster, she said... Many stars in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, may have formed in a similar manner to the Orion stars, she said. So there could be similar, hard-to-see planets floating around free near the Solar System.

13 posted on 10/27/2017 1:05:04 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

14 posted on 10/27/2017 1:46:55 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: SunkenCiv

15 posted on 10/27/2017 1:48:15 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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We Have Been Waiting for This Day: NASA Says Mystery Object May Be First Interstellar Visitor

16 posted on 10/28/2017 1:02:06 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: BenLurkin

OH, nuts, I didn’t check before I built that post.

and it’s also here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3599290/posts?page=56#56


17 posted on 10/28/2017 1:03:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: zeugma

Sure its not likely that it is interstellar but if it could be proven that a comet was interstellar that could provide a mechanism for Panspermia so would be significant. Proving it is not just “appearance” of interstellar origin is the trick though; more evidence is needed imo.


18 posted on 10/31/2017 11:00:35 PM PDT by FYREDEUS (FYREDEUS)
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To: EBH; BenLurkin

19 posted on 11/23/2017 10:17:09 AM PST by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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