- 9 months ago
Comet 2I/Borisov showed up from outside our solar system in 2019, and even years later, scientists still can’t agree on where it actually came from. In this video, we talk about how Borisov was spotted, why its path proves it was born around another star, and why tracing its home system is way harder than it sounds. Unlike the first interstellar visitor, Borisov behaved like a normal comet, which somehow made its origin even more mysterious. We dig into what its chemistry tells us, what clues scientists hoped to find, and why most of them hit dead ends. It’s one of those space stories where the object plays nice, but the answers refuse to show up ☄️🌌 Animation is created by Bright Side.
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Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
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Our Social Media:
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https://www.shutterstock.com
https://www.eastnews.ru
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For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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FunTranscript
00:00Our solar system is full of mysterious objects that come from, well, everywhere.
00:05In October 2017, researchers in Hawaii spotted a mysterious thing that they dubbed a muamua.
00:13This means a visitor from a faraway land in Hawaiian.
00:16Or, that's a really big cow!
00:18It followed an escape orbit.
00:20It literally escaped from its planet's gravitational pull,
00:23like throwing a ball into space, never to return.
00:26This meant that this weird thing arrived from somewhere outside of our solar system.
00:33There were tons of theories about what it was,
00:35from a simple asteroid to an extraterrestrial spacecraft.
00:40Scientists even thought it was a chunk of nitrogen ice from a Pluto-like planet.
00:44Its strange shape only added to the mystery.
00:47The big changes in the light curves showed that this thing could be either elongated,
00:52like a tube, or more flat, like a pancake.
00:54This thing was unlike anything we've seen before.
00:58Oumuamua didn't behave exactly like a comet or an asteroid.
01:02Comets are icy and form bright tails when they pass near the sun,
01:06while asteroids are basically just rocks and don't form tails.
01:10Oumuamua has no tail and doesn't release gas, like me.
01:14But it's not your average rock either.
01:16Its surface is very shiny, almost like polished metal.
01:19When it passed by the sun, it sped up, like it had a rocket on it.
01:23And it wasn't the sun's gravity that gave Oumuamua the sudden boost.
01:28Scientists aren't sure what caused it.
01:30So what in the world was that thing?
01:34After years of study, scientists now think that Oumuamua is probably a comet with frozen hydrogen on its surface.
01:42This hydrogen reacted with sunlight, speeding up the comet and changing its path.
01:46Oumuamua likely got all that hydrogen from being exposed to tons of cosmic rays for a long time.
01:53It got some nice red tint from them as well.
01:56Oumuamua was a visitor from a young, chaotic solar system where collisions and migrations happen all the time.
02:03Such systems often toss many small objects around.
02:07It might have been pushed out by a planet like Jupiter, whose gravity is so insanely strong that it can fling huge things into outer space.
02:15The same thing often happens with comets here.
02:18Oumuamua already left our solar system, although similar objects visit us sometimes, about once per year.
02:25To learn more about these mysterious guests, astronomers plan to send a probe to chase Oumuamua.
02:31We'll use Earth's and Jupiter's orbits to slingshot it fast enough to catch up with the comet.
02:37But some of the unexpected visitors stayed a bit longer.
02:43In October 2019, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took a picture of a bluish comet trailing dust and gas.
02:50It was already in the solar system at the time, around 260 million miles away from Earth, somewhere between Mars and Jupiter.
02:57We saw the glowing dust surrounding it, but we couldn't yet see its nucleus, since it's way too small.
03:04Well, small is relative here.
03:06The thing is about 3,200 feet across, which is like the length of nine football fields.
03:12In March 2020, Hubble images showed that a small fragment of the comet broke away from the nucleus.
03:18That means that the comet is very active, unlike Oumuamua.
03:22As we observed it further, we found that the nucleus is a loose mix of ice and dust particles.
03:30Its surface is also very similar to others, with rough areas and smooth blankets of icy, dusty debris.
03:37The comet was discovered by an amateur astronomer, Gennady Borisov.
03:41So, it got the name Comet 2I Borisov.
03:44Congratulations!
03:45Scientists quickly confirmed it came to us from outside our solar system.
03:49And this thing sure was an enthusiastic tourism.
03:53It traveled at a breakneck speed of about 110,000 miles per hour.
03:57That's fast enough to circle the Earth four times in just one hour.
04:01This visit was fascinating for several reasons.
04:05Most comets in our solar system come from the Kuiper Belt, or the Oort Cloud.
04:10The Kuiper Belt is a region of space beyond the orbit of Neptune.
04:13It's like a big, distant ring around the Sun, filled with many small, icy objects.
04:18All of them are ancient, leftover pieces from the time when our solar system was still very young.
04:24The Oort Cloud is much farther.
04:26It's like a giant bubble around the solar system, also filled with super-old, icy objects.
04:32Most long-period comets come from there.
04:34But where did the comet 2I Borisov come from?
04:38We still don't know for sure.
04:39Scientists say that it likely formed in another star system, which could be either younger or older than our solar system.
04:46Would be weird if there was a third option, NASA.
04:49Anyway, it might have been kicked out from its home system, just like Oumuamua.
04:55Although comet 2I Borisov is too small to hold on to its own atmosphere, it developed a coma when it approached the Sun.
05:03Now, coma is a funny name for that beautiful glowing cloud of gas and dust that surrounds the comet's nucleus.
05:09It forms when the Sun's heat causes the comet's ice to vaporize, releasing dust and gas into space.
05:16This one was friendlier than Oumuamua and gave us some more time to study it.
05:21As a result, we learned more about its cool, unique traits.
05:25For example, it had never interacted with another star.
05:28But, unfortunately, Borisov had to leave too.
05:32Now it's on a path that will take it back into interstellar space.
05:36However, there are many more visitors to come.
05:39And you might have heard of this one.
05:42The Great Comet of 1996.
05:45That's what we call the comet Hayakutake.
05:48It was also named after the astronomer who discovered it, Yuji Hayakutake.
05:52In a beautiful coincidence, it was discovered on New Year's Eve.
05:56On March 25, 1996, this thing passed by incredibly close to Earth, only about 0.1 astronomical units away, a bit farther than the Moon.
06:08It passed over the North Pole.
06:10This made it one of the closest comet encounters in 200 years.
06:14It was visible worldwide, and it looked very bright and beautiful in the sky, stretching out widely.
06:20And it didn't stay for one night only.
06:22It got more and more visible during March, becoming one of the brightest objects in the night sky by the end of the month.
06:29The comet only fully faded by the end of May.
06:32It's a long-period comet, which means it takes hundreds of years to orbit the Sun.
06:37The last time it visited was about 17,000 years ago.
06:41And now its orbital period increased to 70,000 years.
06:45But don't be upset.
06:46There are other comets that will brighten our days and nights.
06:50Besides, some space objects prefer to stay around for longer.
06:55Now, there's this asteroid with a multi-syllabic name that, to pronounce, is above my pay grade.
07:01This name in Hawaiian means the mischievous one of Jupiter.
07:05Luckily, scientists had mercy on us and dubbed it BZ.
07:09Hey, speaking for all the other narrators, thank you.
07:11It's a small asteroid, only about 1.8 miles in diameter.
07:16You can guess from the name that it shares an orbit with Jupiter.
07:20But there's a cruel catch.
07:22The asteroid moves in the opposite direction, which is known as a retrograde orbit.
07:27The unusual asteroid was discovered on November 2014.
07:31It orbits the Sun for about 11 years and 8 months,
07:34sometimes passing inside and outside of Jupiter's orbit.
07:37It's been this way for at least a million years, and it will remain so for about a million more.
07:43But why does it move so unusually?
07:48BZ might actually be an interstellar immigrant.
07:52Perhaps it passed by our solar system about 4.5 billion years ago,
07:56around the time when the Sun was just forming.
07:59Then it got captured by gravity, but saved its opposite orbit.
08:03Or maybe it came from the Oort cloud.
08:05Then it could get its weird orbit from the mysterious planet 9,
08:10a hypothetical planet that's believed to exist in our solar system far beyond Jupiter.
08:15In any case, this asteroid gives us more insight into the history of the solar system
08:20and how organic materials can travel to us from outer space.
08:25Now, at any given time, there are thousands of objects in our solar system that come from outer space.
08:30They stay here for different lengths of time.
08:33But sometimes we get lucky, and they end up teaching us a lot about interstellar space.
08:42A large space probe is nearing the Sun.
08:45The terrifying heat of the star begins to melt the shell of the spacecraft.
08:50Another moment, and the probe bursts into flames.
08:53In no time, it disintegrates in a powerful explosion.
08:56Ah, what a sad ending.
08:59If it were true, it was not a probe.
09:02It was a comet known as 3I Atlas.
09:05And despite everything people say, it's still intact and thriving.
09:09The thing is, there is a rumor online saying that comet 3I Atlas exploded when it got closest to the Sun.
09:17But astronomers say this is not true.
09:20There was no explosion.
09:22And the comet's nucleus still looks whole and undamaged.
09:26Which is kind of surprising, since comets that pass very close to the Sun usually go through some serious changes.
09:33You see, comets are made of a mix of ice, dust, and rocky material.
09:37Which is why they're often called dirty snowballs.
09:40So, when they come close to the Sun, the intense heat from our star makes their ice turn into gas.
09:47This new gas can burst out in huge jets, form a cloud around the comet called a coma, and or be pushed away into a long tail.
09:56Sunlight makes all of these parts shine more brightly.
09:59And even people with small or simple telescopes can study the comet if the viewing conditions are good.
10:05But aside from being a breathtaking view, such a close approach can break off pieces of a comet, or even tear its whole nucleus apart.
10:14Now, it's true that some comets survive this process.
10:18But many, especially small ones, or comets entering the inner solar system for the first time, break into pieces or disappear completely.
10:27Well, 3I Atlas acted differently.
10:30So there.
10:31It reached its closest point to the Sun on October 29, 2025.
10:36This point is called the Perhelion.
10:38At that moment, the comet was about 130 million miles from the Sun.
10:43That's about one and a half times the distance between the Sun and our planet.
10:47The comet was also on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth.
10:51So, the star was blocking it from our view, and we couldn't see the comet.
10:54Anyway, even though 3I Atlas could hypothetically break apart or release lots of fragments, it didn't.
11:03The nucleus stayed intact.
11:04And this made the comet's behavior even more unusual and interesting to scientists.
11:09They looked closely at the new photos and said everything looked normal.
11:13Now, interestingly, the day before, some people thought the comet had broken into pieces after it came out from behind the far side of the Sun.
11:23This idea became popular after a blog post said the comet had lost a lot of mass.
11:29So, to make this claim, the blog used photos taken on November 9th by two small telescopes in Spain.
11:36The pictures show jets of gas coming out of the comet.
11:40The scientists used this to estimate how much material was coming off the comet, claiming that it should have broken into at least 16 pieces.
11:48However, many scientists have questioned this statement.
11:52Most researchers say there's no proof that the comet exploded.
11:55One scientist who studies the comet says that all the images he had seen showed a completely normal, healthy comet.
12:03There's no sign that the main body of the comet has broken apart.
12:07Still, now that the comet is coming back into view, astronomers are watching it very carefully.
12:13They want to learn more about the comet's materials and structure.
12:16Right now, if you look at it from Earth, the comet seems to be slowly moving higher in the eastern sky.
12:23If the weather is good, people in many parts of the northern hemisphere can see it with a small telescope, like this one with a 6-inch lens.
12:31And many do pay attention to the comet.
12:34Since it was discovered in July, it has become the center of many curious ideas.
12:40Some people are sure that the comet, which comes from outside our solar system and might be more than 7 billion years old,
12:47could be a probe sent by a different civilization.
12:51Now, most astronomers strongly disagree, of course.
12:54They believe the comet is completely natural and comes from another star system somewhere in the Milky Way.
13:00And this is actually exciting.
13:03Comet 3I Atlas is only the third interstellar comet ever seen, and it is the largest one of its kind.
13:10Before, it was comet 2I Borisov that passed through in 2019, and Amuamua, a weird elongated object that appeared in 2017.
13:20But 3I Atlas, with its up to 3.5-mile nucleus, dwarfs Amuamua, which was just a quarter-mile long, and Borisov, which is about three-tenths of a mile across.
13:33Plus, 3I Atlas may be the oldest comet humans have ever observed.
13:38Amuamua is much younger, around 1 billion years old.
13:42It came from the galaxy's thin disk, where new stars are still being born.
13:46It was the first known object from another star system to pass through our solar system.
13:51Basically, our first interstellar guest.
13:54It was super-stretched out, about ten times longer than it was wide.
13:58Unlike anything else we've spotted in space.
14:02As for 2I Borisov, it sits in between, at roughly 1.7 billion years old.
14:08It also came from the thin disk.
14:10It was the first confirmed comet to come from another star system.
14:13And it gave scientists a super-rare peek at what materials beyond our solar system were made of.
14:20Unlike the first interstellar visitor, Oumuamua, which looked more like an asteroid, Borisov behaved like a classic comet.
14:28It had a bright coma, a temporary fuzzy atmosphere of gas and dust forming around the comet's nucleus as it approaches the sun.
14:36Plus, it also had a long tail of dust and gas.
14:40Now, 2I Borisov is speeding away from the sun and will never return.
14:45But it allowed scientists to take a glimpse into the chemistry and history of distant worlds.
14:51Now, let's get back to comet 3I Atlas.
14:54It will pass closest to Earth on December 19th.
14:57Until then, scientists will make many more observations.
15:01People will also make many new claims about the comet, that's for sure.
15:05But it's best to be cautious and not believe everything immediately.
15:08By the way, even though you can't see this famous comet with your own eyes or with a regular telescope, hey, that's good news.
15:16A powerful telescope in Italy is streaming it live for free.
15:21Whoa.
15:21So anyone can actually watch this mysterious object as it passes by.
15:26Scientists think this comet weighs about 33 billion tons.
15:30That's a big number.
15:32How about we make a few comparisons?
15:33The Eiffel Tower weighs around 10,000 tons.
15:37So, 33 billion tons is the same as 3.3 million Eiffel Towers.
15:44And if you decide to compare the space visitor to buildings,
15:47well, 33 billion tons is about the same as the weight of several huge city areas made entirely of steel and concrete.
15:54Now, 3i Atlas was first noticed in July by NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial Impact Last Alert System.
16:03Which, if you're paying attention, is where they got the nickname Atlas.
16:08Shortly after, NASA confirmed that the object wasn't from our solar system at all.
16:13Now, besides being huge, 3i Atlas is unusual in several other ways.
16:17As it moves through the solar system, it's releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide and dust.
16:23So, this suggests that 3i Atlas is 3 to 5 orders of magnitude,
16:28which means 1,000 to 100,000 times more massive than the two other known interstellar visitors.
16:35Such an enormous difference is a real scientific mystery.
16:38It's also traveling incredibly fast, about 150,000 miles per hour,
16:44which is almost 200 times the speed of sound.
16:47Hey, that will get you a speeding ticket!
16:50And unlike objects in our solar system, which follow curved paths because of gravity,
16:553i Atlas is moving on a nearly straight line.
16:58That alone makes it stand out.
17:01Now that the comet has moved past the Sun,
17:04telescopes on Earth can see it again.
17:05Comet 3i Atlas is important to us because it's only the third interstellar visitor we've ever seen,
17:13and it may be the biggest and oldest one yet.
17:15And it didn't break apart near the Sun like some other comets.
17:19By studying it, scientists can learn what materials exist in other star systems
17:24and better understand how comets, and even planets, form in our galaxy.
17:31That's it for today.
17:33So hey, if you pacified your curiosity,
17:35then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
17:38Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side!