Interstellar visitor
2I/Borisov
Borisov is a comet that came to us from another star. An amateur astronomer discovered it in 2019 with a telescope he had built himself. It will never come back.
Fact file
- Type
- Interstellar visitor
- Diameter of the nucleus
- 1 km
- Orbit
- open (hyperbola) – will never return
- Closest point to the Sun
- passed on 8 December 2019
Interesting facts about 2I/Borisov
- The second known visitor from another star – and the first that looked like a proper comet, with a coma and a tail.
- It was discovered in 2019 by the amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov in Crimea, with a telescope he had built himself.
- It contained an unusually large amount of carbon monoxide ice – it must have formed in a very cold region around another star.
Origin
A comet from another planetary system that was flung out at some point – perhaps by a giant planet.
Coma and tail
It showed a coma and a tail just like our own comets. Part of its nucleus broke off in 2020.
Exploration
Many telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope, observed it for months.
Connection with Earth
With an initial speed of 32 km/s, it was even faster than ʻOumuamua.
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