A WILD CHASE IN SPACE
Interstellar object/Borisov
SPEED: 39.5km/s
CLOSEST TO EARTH: 28 DEC 2019
CURRENT DISTANCE: 514 million km
Interstellar object/Oumuamua
SPEED: 28.2km/s
CLOSEST TO EARTH: 14 OCT 2017
CURRENT DISTANCE: 3.3 billion km
LYRA PROBE PROJECT
SPEED: 55.6km/s
REQUIRED LAUNCH: 2033
ARRIVAL TO OUMUAMUA: 2052
While the Solar System’s planets, asteroids and comets were travelling neatly around the Sun in elliptical orbits, interstellar object Oumuamua sped right through in 2017 and has already passed Uranus on its way out of the Solar System. British engineers have calculated that it is theoretically possible to launch a probe at such a high speed that it could catch up with Oumaumau within a few decades. The as-yetunfunded mission has been named Project Lyra.
➝ DISCOVERY
➝ PURSUIT
➝ INVESTIGATION
Canadian astronomer Robert Weryk is busy at work at the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii. Going over the telescope images on his computer, he spots a tiny bright spot. Initially he thinks it is just a common asteroid. But there is something odd about the way the object moves. It is speeding unusually fast across the sky – and doesn’t follow the usual elliptical path of other objects in the Solar System.
Robert Weryk was looking at just the right section of the sky at just the right time – the night of 19
