Specialists from the Keck Observatory, located on the peak of Mauna Kea (Hawaii, USA), presented a snapshot of the 2I / Borisov object, an interstellar comet discovered just a few months ago.
The named body was discovered at the end of August this year by amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov on a 65-cm telescope of his own design. The comet became the second known interstellar object after the asteroid Oumuamua. in the fall of 2017 through the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii.
Observations show that comet 2I/Borisov is trailed by a huge tail, an elongated plume of dust and gas. It is estimated that it extends for about 160 thousand km.
It is expected that the interstellar comet will be at its minimum distance from the Earth on December 8: on this day it will pass by our planet at a distance of about 300 million km.
Since the discovery, specialists have been able to obtain new information about the object. Its core is estimated to be approximately 1,6 km across. The direction of the comet's movement is from the constellation Cassiopeia near the border with the constellation Perseus and very close to the plane of the Milky Way.
Source: 3dnews.ru