Comments on: An Interstellar Object Visits Our Solar System

By: Brandön Bowërs

Brandön Bowërs — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 23:01:19 +0000

That object looks like it was travelling from the galactic core and just got redirected on a path out of the galactic disk actually.

By: Aldor Ericsson

Aldor Ericsson — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 12:42:57 +0000

Relative to what?

By: JIHarmer

JIHarmer — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 21:48:25 +0000

Observational bias. If the rock had passed the Solar System outside the orbit of Neptune, then we would never have seen it. Similarly if it had nosedived straight into the Sun we wouldn’t have seen it either. With our current observational techniques, we’re only going to see a small fraction of all the rocks that fall into the Solar System. Only the ones on specific trajectories that happen to swing by Earth are going to be observed.

By: jpatrick

jpatrick — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 18:47:53 +0000

In a game of interstellar marksmanship this one’s a bull’s eye. To toss a rock a few light years and then have it pass through our solar system inside the orbit of Mercury is nothing like hitting the sharp end of a needle with a rifle at 400 meters. The rifle shot would be much easier.

By: Greg McMahan

Greg McMahan — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 06:07:19 +0000

When the comet went around the sun, did it gain speed or lose it?

By: Aldor Ericsson

Aldor Ericsson — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 11:18:27 +0000

An unrelated question. Brian, this site used to have a page with all posts grouped by category. Can it be brought back? Pretty please? (Or, at least, a list of all categories. Currently, to see all posts in “Solar system”, I have to somehow find ANY post in this category first.)