A newly discovered comet hurtling toward the orbit of Mars has scientists scurrying to confirm whether it came from outside the solar system, a likely prospect that would make it the second such interstellar object observed in our planetary neighborhood.
The trajectory of the comet, first detected by Crimean astronomer Gennady Borisov, follows a highly curved path barreling in the sun's direction at unusually high speeds, evidence that it originated beyond the solar system.
"On our team we've been scrambling here at the University of Hawaii to get observations to make position measurements," said Karen Meech, an astronomer at the university whose team concluded that the object's size and tail of gas classify it as a comet.