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Related papers: Initial Characterization of Interstellar Comet 2I/…

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On 31 August 2019, an interstellar comet was discovered as it passed through the Solar System (2I/Borisov). Based on initial imaging observations, 2I/Borisov appeared to be completely similar to ordinary Solar System comets - an unexpected…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2021-05-20 Piotr Guzik , Michał Drahus

We processed images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to investigate any morphological features in the inner coma suggestive of a peculiar activity on the nucleus of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. The coma shows an evident…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-04-29 F. Manzini , V. Oldani , P. Ochner , L. R. Bedin , .

Comets and asteroids have long captured human curiosity, and until recently, all documented examples belonged to our Solar System. That changed with the discovery of the first known interstellar object, 1I/2017 U1 ('Oumuamua), in 2017. Two…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-04-03 Josep M. Trigo-Rodríguez , Damya Souami , Maria Gritsevich , Marcin Wesołowski , Gennady Borisov

We report the clear detection of C$_2$ and of abundant NH$_2$ in the first prominently active interstellar comet, 2I/Borisov. We observed 2I on three nights in November 2019 at optical wavelengths 4800--9300 \AA with the Multi-Unit…

We describe pre-perihelion optical observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS taken during July - September 2025 using the Nordic Optical Telescope. Fixed aperture photometry of the comet is well described by a power law function of…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-11-07 David Jewitt , Jane Luu

2I/Borisov is the second interstellar object (ISO) after 'Oumuamua (Meech et al. 2017), but differs from 'Oumuamua drastically with its extensive cometary activity. A key ingredient to understand the nature of this comet is its size.…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2019-12-13 Chien-Hsiu Lee , Hsing-Wen Lin , Ying-Tung Chen , Sheng-Feng Yen

We report results from broadband visible images of comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 on 2013 April 10. C/ISON's coma brightness follows a 1/{\rho} (where {\rho} is the projected distance…

2I/Borisov - hereafter 2I - is the first visibly active interstellar comet observed in the solar system, allowing us for the first time to sample the composition of a building block from another system. We report on the monitoring of 2I…

Comets spend most of their lives at large distances from any star, during which time their interior compositions remain relatively unaltered. Cometary observations can therefore provide direct insight into the chemistry that occurred during…

We study the development of activity in the incoming long-period comet C/2017 K2 over the heliocentric distance range 9 < r_H < 16 AU. The comet continues to be characterized by a coma of sub-millimeter and larger particles ejected at low…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2021-03-24 David Jewitt , Yoonyoung Kim , Max Mutchler , Jessica Agarwal , Jing Li , Harold Weaver

We present high spectral resolution optical spectra obtained with the ARCES instrument at Apache Point Observatory showing detection of the [OI]6300 A line in interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. We employ the observed flux in this line to derive…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-02-05 Adam J. McKay , Anita L. Cochran , Neil Dello Russo , Michael DiSanti

Interstellar comets offer direct samples of volatiles from distant protoplanetary disks. 2I/Borisov is the first notably active interstellar comet discovered in our solar system[1]. Comets are condensed samples of the gas, ice, and dust…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-04-21 D. Bodewits , J. W. Noonan , P. D. Feldman , M. T. Bannister , D. Farnocchia , W. M. Harris , J. -Y. Li , K. E. Mandt , J. Wm. Parker , Z. Xing

Time-domain photometric monitoring is essential for characterizing cometary evolution, particularly for rare interstellar objects with limited observing opportunities. We aimed to characterize the pre-perihelion photometric behavior and…

In this work we aim to characterise the dust motion in the inner coma of comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko to provide constraints for theoretical 3D coma models. The OSIRIS camera onboard the Rosetta mission was able for the first time to…

Interstellar Objects (ISO) passing through our Solar System offer a rare opportunity to probe the physical and chemical processes involved in solid body and planet formation in extrasolar systems. The main objective of our study is to…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-02-05 Bin Yang , Michael S. P. Kelley , Karen J. Meech , Jacqueline V. Keane , Silvia Protopapa , Schelte J. Bus

We identified a new ultra-distant comet C/2019 E3 (ATLAS) exhibiting preperihelion cometary activity at heliocentric distances $\gtrsim\!20$ au, making it the fourth member of this population after C/2010 U3 (Boattini), C/2014 UN$_{271}$…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2024-01-10 Man-To Hui , Robert Weryk , Marco Micheli , Zhong Huang , Richard Wainscoat

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is the main target of ESA's Rosetta mission and will be encountered in May 2014. As the spacecraft shall be in orbit the comet nucleus before and after release of the lander {\it Philae}, it is necessary…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-28 G. P. Tozzi , P. Patriarchi , H. Boehnhardt , J. -B. Vincent , J. Licandro , L. Kolokolova , R. Schulz , J. Stüwe

The close encounter of Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) with Mars on October 19, 2014 presented an extremely rare opportunity to obtain the first flyby quality data of the nucleus and inner coma of a dynamically new comet. However, the…