Hubble grabs first snap of interstellar comet... or at least that's what we hope this smudge is Astroboffins have released images taken by the Hubble telescope of the second-ever interstellar object and the first-ever verified comet to enter our Solar System from the depths of the universe. Dubbed comet 2I/Borisov, the speeding bundle of rock and dust was detected back in August by Crimean hobbyist Gennady Borisov and …
No they didn't, but according to international law and United Nations Resolution 68/262, it is still part of Ukraine. Doesn't matter what Russia thinks.
Same goes for closest approach: 186 million miles should actually read 300 million kilometres.
Journos shouldn't convert units, they almost always make things worse. I fully expect that some other journo will read this article and convert the units back again and introduce unfeasible accuracy.
Source article which says 300 million kilometres:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/09/13/tut_you_wait_a_lifetime_for_an_interstellar_object_and_then_two_come_at_once/
"I prefer 1 kilolightsecond."
I don't. It's just so confusing to use C as a distance measurement. Now the relativistic affects of the Sun's gravity well affect the distance measurement and we cannot know both its position and velocity relative to Earth at the same time....wait, that is actually correct, so yes, let's use lightseconds as our distance measurement.
There's a message here - closest approach is EXACTLY the same as the diameter of the Earth's orbit - they want to be certain we get the message. Next time it's one radius, then the third time it's Extinction time! Time to shut down all our space activity and worship our new interstellar overlords.
>> There's a message here - closest approach is EXACTLY the same as the diameter of the Earth's orbit - they want to be certain we get the message.
> Perihelion is reported as 2.006 AU.
There's a message here - closest approach is EXACTLY twice the diameter of the Earth's orbit - they want to be certain we get the message
1 AU = the approximate distance from Earth to Sun, or, from Sun to Earth. In other words, the radius of Earth's obit. Wait, too early for an obit on Earth -- I must have meant orbit.
The interstellar comet's perihelion is, as mentioned, 2.006 AU. Twice the radius of Earth's orbit. Or, in flat spacetime, nearly exactly the diameter of Earth's orbit. As stated by Pen-y-gors.
Picky, picky, I am, but mean to cast no aspersions on commentards various.
But certainly if They wish to warn us they'll take out the Moon first? That would get our attention. I would guess Earth would gain a lovely ring of dust and pebbles but most likely no human eyeballs would get to see it because enough rocks would be de-orbited in the chaos that a fiery rain of meteors would turn Earth's sky into a broiler oven.
Why? because even in ‘Merican science labs they use SI units. Which can be a shock for US undergrads. I grew up in little New Zealand from early 1972 and they had been fully metric for several years by that time so I was educated entirely in metric. So becoming a scientist was not hard in that aspect. I looked up where Angstroms lie wrt nm or pm but as an electron microscopist I NEVER used it or saw on any paper newer than about 1960. Clean powers of 10/-3 do perfectly fine thankyou.
"Why? Simply report the distance in lightseconds so that it is correct for all units of measurement and conversions have little meaning or purpose."
That assumes that everyone understands and agrees on what a second is. Microsoft employees might have difficulties converting, especially the devs in charge of progress bars.
There's certainly a difference. I think the Wikipedia number is the velocity when the object was outside Sol's gravitational influence, whereas the larger figure is a report of the current velocity, while it's well inside. I assume it'll be even quicker when December 8 rolls around.
It's clearly been launched by the Arachnids and is set to obliterate Buenos Aires. In order to claim citizenship and reap revenge on these "bugs", I've signed up to the Mobile Infantry and have been assigned to some unit called "the Roughnecks"?
There was an article in the "Daily Express" about somewhere in Wales being a UFO hotspot.
Also why would aliens use Wifi? Surely they have moved well beyond using radio waves, thought the latest concept was coherent neutrino beams? Can go 500 light years and still be detected, but show up on "lesser" species radar as astronomical phenomena.
Maybe the fast radio bursts are beacons telling folks where the interesting sights are, or adverts for "Extend your Pseudopods with this One Weird Trick" intergalactic spammage.
Not that I would read the DE even on the vain hope there might be some useful data but I'd imagine any mining area would be a UFO hotspot. Earth fractures seem to cause luminous phenomena above ground - some piezo electric effect seems to cause electromagnetic loops that, above ground can focus in damp air and cause low level aurora. the phenomena is often seen along earthquake faults and mines do lots of mini earthquakes as they continue to settle.
I wonder if it might have picked up a coating of interstellar ice and dust on its journey. As it approaches the sun this may just all boil off to leave a lump of rock. This may have happened to Oumuamua.
Whatever I shall be breaking out the 16" as soon as it looks like it wont get filled with rain.
Well, this is a Left-Pondian viewpoint, but, you know, Dec 7 was the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, bringing the US into WW II. And they say this object is making its closest approach to the sun the SAME DAY?
That begs the question, is this REALLY just a coincidence? That's what THEY want you to believe, of course. (Putting on my tinfoil hat and heading off to my mountain bunker complex.)
"A rather underrated Clarke"
Only the first was by ACC, the rest ( and vastly inferior) books were mainly the work of Gentry Lee, with Clarkes name added to show they were "official" but he had no hand in the writing of them.
Gentry Lee was / is an appallingly bad writer. Every single book is in essence the same, shockingly bad "Romance novel" set in a Sci Fi universe.
Interesting - I read the first years ago and having enjoyed it got the sequel then never finished it as I thought it was crap.
City and the Stars and Rendezvous with Rama were great books, but I struggle with his bringing in the unknowable supreme omnipotence (god equivalent) in most of his big works.
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