Oct 22, 2019 - Science

Hubble Space Telescope captures best view yet of interstellar comet

An interstellar visitor from hubble space telescope

Gif: NASA/ESA/D. Jewitt (UCLA)

The Hubble Space Telescope has given us our best view yet of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov on its way through our solar system.

Details: The new photos of the comet show it in blue light speeding along, about 420 million kilometers (261 million miles) from Earth.

  • “Because another star system could be quite different from our own, the comet could have experienced significant changes during its long interstellar journey,” Amaya Moro-Martin of the Space Telescope Science Institute said in a statement.

Background: 2I/Borisov is just the second interstellar object seen on a path through the inner solar system. By studying its chemical composition, the comet could tell us how similar or different other solar systems might be compared to our own.

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