Scientists tracking ‘interstellar’ object from another solar System

[Buster's Uncle]

Scientists tracking ‘interstellar’ object that has come to us from another solar system
Andrew Griffin and Julia Musto
The Independent
Wed, July 2, 2025 at 3:56 PM EDT
3 min read



Scientists tracking ‘interstellar’ object that has come to us from another solar system

Astronomers may have just discovered a new interstellar object passing through our solar system.

The object, a celestial body that is visiting from another star system, was discovered on Tuesday by the University of Hawaii’s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, team. At this point, it remains unclear what the object may be or look like as it moves near Jupiter.

Now, scientists are checking to confirm their findings.

“ESA’s Planetary Defenders are observing the object, provisionally known as #A11pl3Z, right now using telescopes around the world,” the European Space Agency said in a social media post on Wednesday. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration told The Associated Press that it is monitoring the situation.

David Rankin, of the University of Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey, said in posts on BlueSky that follow-up observations were made not long after the discovery. A precovery — observations from archival images in which the object was not originally discovered — from CalTech’s Zwicky Transient Facility hinted at the presence of an interstellar object.


Astronomers may have just found the third interstellar object passing through our solar system. The object is seen in this image from Arizona’s Saguaro Observatory (David Rankin, Saguaro Observatory)

“After a few more precovery observations, and follow-ups, it became clear this object is on a hyperbolic trajectory through the solar system,” Rankin wrote.

Since then, new observations have been “rolling in,” helping astronomers to better determine its orbit.

Rankin noted that the first known interstellar object to visit our solar system was ‘Oumuamua, which was spotted in 2017.


An artist’s illustration shows the wayward interstellar visitor `Oumuamua at the outskirts of the solar system. The object was the first known interstellar object to visit our solar system (NASA/ESA/STScI)

Up to one-quarter mile-long and 10 times as long as it is wide, its resembles a rocky cigar with a reddish hue. Its aspect ratio, which is greater than that of any asteroid or comet observed in our solar system to date, even led to speculation that it could be an alien spacecraft.

Observations then suggested that it had been wandering through our Milky Way galaxy for hundreds of millions of years before its encounter with our star system, according to NASA.

The second known object was Comet 2I/Borisov, found in 2019. It is the first confirmed interstellar comet, and was later captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.


NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope snapped this image of the comet 2I/Borisov in late 2019. It was the second interstellar object ever discovered (NASA, ESA and D. Jewitt (UCLA))

Scientists believe that many more such objects regularly pass by the Earth, with a number of them flying relatively near to us each year. However, many of them go undetected because they are hard to spot and it is difficult to know for sure where they have come from.

Researchers hope to eventually learn more about them and even use them as evidence for distant star systems and planets.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-tracking-interstellar-object-come-195614706.html

[Lorizael]

And this thing is very interstellar, with an eccentricity of ~6, which means it's basically just hurtling through here in a straight line without even slowing down (metaphorically...) to say hi.

Up to one-quarter mile-long and 10 times as long as it is wide, [`Oumuamua] resembles a rocky cigar with a reddish hue. Its aspect ratio, which is greater than that of any asteroid or comet observed in our solar system to date, even led to speculation that it could be an alien spacecraft.

Obligatory caveat that later observations trimmed down that ratio and that it was only ever inferred from the lightcurve, not a directly resolved image, so grain of salt, etc.

[Buster's Uncle]

Hey Lori - why don't you start a thread in Rec Commons and tell us about astronomy you've worked on yourself?  You had some distant involvement in New Horizons didn't you?  -Or something probe of that vintage,  for sure, forgive my fuzzy memories.  Give us some summary of your team's discoveries on whatever projects.  Seriously; this crowd eats space science like candy when they can, and we would worship you like a GOD.

Doooooiiiiittt.

[Buster's Uncle]

From a Working Astronomer

Do some of that there science writing/reporting.  The practice might even advance your career.