DOES COMET BORISOV HAVE ALIEN ORIGINS?
Some mysteries have been perplexing astronomers for some time, while others have arrived on the scene only recently. In the case of the Solar System's newest guest, the latter is most certainly true. It was 30 August 2019 when amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov pointed his telescope skywards in Crimea, and what he saw that night not only amazed him, but sent fellow scientists scurrying for a look.
Borisov's observation was extraordinary. “It was the most exciting discovery of 2019,” exclaims Paul Kalas, adjunct professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. What he discovered that night, it transpired, was an interstellar comet which has become known as Comet 2I/Borisov. But exactly where it came from and what it tells us about our universe is now the subject of much study as astronomers around the world seek answers.
Interstellar visitors are rarely discovered. In fact, in the whole of space history we have only ever seen one before – the odd, cigar-shaped 'Oumuamua, which made its closest approach to Earth in October 2017. Comet Borisov's trajectory was such that
