Astronomers using the PanSTARRS1 telescope in Hawaii have discovered an unusual space object.
According to scientists, presumably it may be a comet that does not revolve around the sun. According to scientists, further observations of this object are necessary to confirm the assumption that this space object may be the first illustrative example of an interstellar comet.
Astronomers have never seen a comet that appeared from somewhere outside the solar system and not from the Oort cloud or the Kuiper belt. Due to the large eccentricity of the object's orbit, it turns out that it flew from space outside the solar system in the direction of the star Vega in the constellation Lyra.
The space object was named Comet C.2017 U1. It has a diameter of about 160 meters and moves at a tremendous speed of 26 km per second!
The object passed at a distance of 38,000,000 km from our Sun, passing the Earth on October 14, 2017 at a distance of 24,000,000 km. Now this mysterious object, having circled the sun, is heading back in the direction from which it flew.
This object is currently located between the orbit of Mercury and the Sun, at a distance of 5 times less than the distance between the Sun and the Earth. The object flew into the solar system almost perpendicular to the orbital plane of the Earth and other planets, moving along a hyperbolic trajectory.
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Astronomers say that it is not yet clear whether this object will leave our solar system forever or return to the sun after a while.
In images taken on October 25, 2017 by the Very Large Telescope (VLT), the object was re-detected and its characteristics indicate the absence of any cometary signs. The object was renamed A / 2017 U1 due to the lack of the features necessary for comets and is now listed as an unknown asteroid.
At first this object was declared an interstellar comet, now an asteroid, in other words, astronomers simply cannot determine the belonging and origin of the mysterious object.
Could it be that this is not a comet or an asteroid, but the first officially registered alien spacecraft that has visited our solar system?
Just think of the importance of this discovery - an interstellar spaceship piloted by a highly evolved alien race has visited our solar system and it arrived from some planet located near the star Vega in the constellation Lyra.