Another Interstellar Object Detected in the Solar System

Just as a reminder,<p><pre><code> circle e = 0 earth e = 0.0167 ellipse e &lt; 1 parabola e = 1 hyperbola e &gt; 1 </code></pre> So at e = 3, this object is in a sense bouncing off the sun at an angle of 180 * 2 * invsec(3) &#x2F; pi or ~141 degrees.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Eccentricity_(mathematics)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Eccentricity_(mathematics)</a>

Interesting. This came in at ~30 km&#x2F;sec. And Oumuamua came in at ~26 km&#x2F;sec.<p>It seems that &quot;the Sun moves through the Milky Way at about 20 km&#x2F;s faster than the local average&quot;, or &quot;local standard of rest (LSR)&quot;.[0] With the components being ...<p><pre><code> 11.1 km&#x2F;s toward the galactic center 12.24 km&#x2F;s extra in the direction of galactic rotation 7.25 km&#x2F;s toward the north galactic pole </code></pre> Some ~nearby stars are coming through the galactic plane at 150 km&#x2F;sec or so relative to LSR.<p>These objects probably came from stars with relatively low velocities relative to LSR. There might be some moving a lot faster, but the detection window would be much smaller.<p>0) <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Stellar_kinematics" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Stellar_kinematics</a>

...wakened from a restless sleep with the message from his subconscious still echoing in his brain: <i>The Ramans do everything in threes...</i>

I see a lot of cool space stuff in the tweet and in these comments. Can someone explain this to someone without an astrophysics background? What does the eccentricity of 3 mean, why is that important, and why is this discovery important? Thanks!

A helpful comment from the twitter thread:<p>&quot;Not aliens. And surely they&#x27;re common. But we just haven&#x27;t been able to detect these things until recently. It&#x27;s new to us, not new to the universe.&quot;<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;twit_spires&#x2F;status&#x2F;1171939194282762240" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;twit_spires&#x2F;status&#x2F;1171939194282762240</a>

Short Wiki article on the object: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;C&#x2F;2019_Q4_(Borisov)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;C&#x2F;2019_Q4_(Borisov)</a>

See also the initial professional report at <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.astronomerstelegram.org&#x2F;?read=13100" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.astronomerstelegram.org&#x2F;?read=13100</a>

Something I don&#x27;t understand - why is it surprising that there could be rocks floating around that come from other solar systems?

Update: eccentricity closer to 3.0 (still hyperbolic). <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;AscendingNode&#x2F;status&#x2F;1171845027099795456" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;AscendingNode&#x2F;status&#x2F;1171845027099795456</a>

I&#x27;m excited that as our technology improves we will likely find objects like this increasingly frequently, and in the near future may have the ability to rapidly send a mission to intercept one.

An interesting podcast interviewing Avi Loeb at the time on his speculative theory from the previous visitor:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;after-on.com&#x2F;episodes-31-60&#x2F;040" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;after-on.com&#x2F;episodes-31-60&#x2F;040</a>

See also the Minor Planet Electronic Circular at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;minorplanetcenter.net&#x2F;mpec&#x2F;K19&#x2F;K19RA6.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;minorplanetcenter.net&#x2F;mpec&#x2F;K19&#x2F;K19RA6.html</a>

It&#x27;s a comet. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;AscendingNode&#x2F;status&#x2F;1171894551780290560" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;AscendingNode&#x2F;status&#x2F;1171894551780290560</a>

Is it even feasible to think of scraping something off this object for study? I mean in far future it will happen, but does current tech allow it?

So interesting. There is so much that we don&#x27;t know about the solar system.<p>Does anyone have more helpful links on this topic?

Can we not miss this one this time? I’m still bummed over not catching sight of the first interstellar solar sail.

Sadly, there has to be lots more that are undetected

frankly, having read the three body trilogy, these kinds of reports scare the pants off of me. i always put a small prior that astronomers would look at this and say &quot;uh, oddly, it seems to be headed precisely for a direct collision with Earth.&quot;