Hubble has taken a good, long look at our Earth's newest interstellar visitor, 2I/Borisov

The Hubble telescope caught some glam shots, over the weekend, from a distance of 420 million kilometers.

|Oct 17, 2019, 11:53:16 IST

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the best pictures yet of our newest interstellar visitor.

This comet from outside our solar system is zooming by us at a blistering 110,000 mph (177,000 kph). Hubble caught some glam shots over the weekend from a distance of 260 million miles (420 million kilometers). The photos were released Wednesday.[caption id="attachment_7512251" align="alignnone" width="1280"]

The comet 2I/Borisov as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. image credit; AP[/caption]It’s the second known interstellar visitor to swoop through our solar system. An amateur astronomer from Crimea, Gennady Borisov, discovered the comet in August, two years after the first alien guest, a cigar-shaped rock known as Oumuamua, popped up.

“It’s a puzzle why these two are so different,” David Jewitt of the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the Hubble observation team, said in a statement.

On the other hand, it’s “very remarkable” that the comet’s properties appear to be similar to those of our own solar system’s building blocks, said Amaya Moro-Martin of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

Polish astronomers using ground telescopes, meanwhile, have reported the comet — called Comet 2I/Borisov — looks to be reddish with a nucleus about 1 mile (2 kilometers) across.

The comet will make its closest approach to the sun in December and reach Jupiter’s distance by mid-2020, before heading back toward interstellar space. Hubble — along with other telescopes — will be on the lookout into next year.

Careless Whispers: Scientists discover that plants can 'talk' to each other using smells

Japanese scientists have recorded a video that shows plants, in certain conditions, communicate with each other using mists that carry smells. The discovery, reveals that plants release a fine mist of airborne compounds, to warn nearby plants of potential dangers

Life on Mars? European Space Agency’s Orbiter discovers ice water deposits at equator

European Space Agency's Mars Express Orbiter has identified massive ice and ice water deposits beneath the surface of Mars. The Mars Express orbiter was also the first to confirmed the presence of ice on Mars in 2004

Microsoft briefly overtakes Apple as the most valuable company, Apple back on top again

At its peak during the session, Microsoft's value reached $2.903 trillion, with a 2% surge. As of writing this article, Apple closed at $2.89 trillion, whereas Microsoft closed at $2.86 trillion

Even NASA is facing a tough time, starts layoffs following major budget cuts

NASA is facing some massive budget cuts, because of which, it has been forced to postpone some upcoming missions. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been hit hard by recent federal budget cuts, resulting in the layoff of 100 contractors last week

ISRO, NASA's NISAR satellite to get ready by Jan-end, will monitor Earth's snow-covered regions

The NISAR satellite which has been developed jointly ISRO and NASA, should be ready for launch by the end of January 2024. The collaboration between NASA and ISRO on NISAR is the first time the two agencies have cooperated on hardware development for an Earth-observing mission

Up Next