Scientists Capture Mesmerising Image Of Solar System’s Second Interstellar Visitor Comet Borisov

Space is one of the most complex entities. Apart from taking photographs, modern science is still unable to answer questions regarding many cosmic bodies that exist in the outer world. And now, scientists have photographed a comet that is hurtling towards our Solar System from deep space. Using Hawaii’s Keck Observatory, a team of astronomers from Yale University photographed Comet Borisov on November 24.

According to scientists, Comet 2I/ Borisov is the only second interstellar object ever spotted in our Solar System. The first was the 'Oumuamua in 2017'. Scientists further believe that Borisov has traveled 7 trillion miles to approach our solar system. “The comet will pass roughly 90 million miles from Earth in December,” the report cited a NASA observation. The report added that Borisov's immense speed is indicative of the fact that it came from interstellar space and will return to space again.

As per the report of Science Alert, the recently-captured image reveals the interstellar object’s tail to be nearly 100,000 miles (160,000km) long. In the image, you can see the comet is surrounded by a bright white light. Borisov is approximately 14 times Earth’s diameter and more than 40 percent the distance from Earth to the Moon.

Take a look:

Comet Borisov: A new image of the interstellar Comet 2l/Borisov has been released (Image: Pieter van Dokkum, Cheng-Han Hsieh, Shany Danieli and Gregory Laughlin/Getty)

Speaking about the interstellar object, Yale scientist Dr Pieter van Dokkum said that it was humbling to realise how small Earth is compared to the visitor from another solar system.

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Importantly, the comet was first spotted in late August by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov.

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