On Wednesday, October 25, 2017 at 8:10:56 PM UTC-7, RichA wrote:
On Wednesday, October 25, 2017 at 3:55:26 PM UTC-4, palsing wrote:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astro...stellar-comet/

Wow, this is fascinating...

"... an object swept up just a week ago by observers using the PanSTARRS 1 telescope atop Haleakala on Maui has an extreme orbit — it's on a hyperbolic trajectory that doesn't appear to be bound to the Sun. Preliminary findings, published earlier today [10/25/2017] by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center (MPC), suggest that we are witnessing a comet that escaped from another star."

I wonder how it escaped the star?

Great question... but I think the answer has already been considered. Here, read here...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_comet

"Current models of Oort cloud formation predict that more comets are ejected into interstellar space than are retained in the Oort cloud, by a factor of 3–100.[2] Other simulations suggest that 90–99% of comets are ejected.[7] There is no reason to believe comets formed in other star systems would not be similarly scattered.[1]"

We are so lucky to live in an era where the instruments used to view the universe are producing results that could not even have been imagined 100 years ago. I'm just a little depressed that I won't be around to see what is to be found in another 50 or 100 years, stuff that I can't imagine today :(

Oh well, I can still marvel at today's astronomical bounty.

\Paul A