Astronomers Race to Study a Mystery Object From Outside Our Solar System
“I was not expecting to see anything like this during my career, even though we knew it was possible and
that these objects exist,” said Davide Farnocchia, a navigational engineer with NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Astronomers had predicted such an occurrence, but this is the first time that it has been recorded.
Then on Oct. 14 the object came within about 15 million miles of Earth, zipping by at about 37 miles per second, with respect to the Earth.
Now it’s moving away at about 25 miles per second, he said, and will exit the solar system at about 16 miles per second.