(BI) – Astronomers may have spotted the second object ever to visit our solar system from another star system. The object may even fly near Mars later this year, though it’s still far away. The scientists’ hunch is strong but not yet certain: Right now, the chances are much higher that the object, known as comet “C/2019 Q4 (Borisov)” (formerly “gb00234”), is interstellar, rather than a rock from within the solar system. The first such interstellar object ever detected – the mysterious and controversial cigar-shaped space rock
‘Oumuamua – zoomed through our solar system in 2017. Amateur Ukrainian astronomer Gennady Borisov may have been the first to spot C/2019 Q4 in the sky on August 30. It hasn’t yet entered our solar system, but astronomers have been collecting data in hopes of plotting the object’s path through space and figuring out where it came from. “It’s so exciting, we’re basically looking away from all of our other projects right now,” Olivier Hainaut, an astronomer with the European Southern Observatory, told Business Insider on Wednesday. Hainaut was part of a global team of astronomers that studied ‘Oumuamua as it passed through the solar system two years ago. READ MORE
