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You can click this link to read my article on Y4 ATLAS and 2I/Borisov, unless you DON’T want to see a Hubble image of a comet that’s disintegrating. Up to you. https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/a-tale-of-two-comets-atlas-shrugs-borisov-is-finally-weird
2/ There are other pix there too, including a couple from #PeachAstro, who is amazing.
It’s a bummer that ATLAS almost certainly won’t become naked eye visible like it was promising to a few weeks ago, but that’s comets. They’re shifty.
It’s a bummer that ATLAS almost certainly won’t become naked eye visible like it was promising to a few weeks ago, but that’s comets. They’re shifty.
3/ As comet hunter Dave Levy says, they’re like cats: They have tails and do what they want.
BTW comets falling apart like that is fairly common. They’re held together by ice, and when they get near the Sun their structure can be weakened. Then: FFffffft.
BTW comets falling apart like that is fairly common. They’re held together by ice, and when they get near the Sun their structure can be weakened. Then: FFffffft.
4/ Borisov, despite HAVING COME FROM AN ALIEN STAR THROUGH INTERSTELLAR SPACE TO PASS THROUGH OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, has been tiresomely normal. Everything about it looked just like one of our locally grown comets… until ALMA looked at it.
5/ It has a bizarrely huge amount of carbon monoxide in it, like 10 - 25 times more than you’d see in a solar system comet! This stuff forms in very cold environments, so the comet came from far out from a star like the Sun or maybe from a cooler star like a red dwarf.
6/ Borisov is only the 2nd alien object we’ve seen passing by, and ‘Oumuamua is WAY weirder. But with 2 samples we don’t know if these are representative of what’s out there or not. https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/no-oumuamua-is-not-an-alien-spaceship-it-might-be-even-weirder
7/7 The trip through *very* deep space may change them, too. We just have to wait and keep looking for more of these galactic visitors so that we can learn more about them. There are more out there. We’ll find ‘em.
https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/a-tale-of-two-comets-atlas-shrugs-borisov-is-finally-weird
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https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/a-tale-of-two-comets-atlas-shrugs-borisov-is-finally-weird
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