The astronomer told about the interstellar object flying to the Earth

A new interstellar object with the temporary designation A11pl3Z has been discovered in the Solar System — this is the third case in history when a body moves in an interstellar orbit passing through our planetary system. This was told by astronomer Alexander Kiselyov.

In conversation with aif.ru On Friday, July 4, he explained that we are talking about a comet, and the exact place of its origin is difficult to determine. According to his assumption, it could have come from the Centauri arm of the Shield of the Milky Way, where stars are actively forming, although a more distant origin is possible, for example, intergalactic, although this is unlikely.

Among the possible scenarios for its appearance, the scientist named an outburst from a distant star system under the influence of gravity, the result of a collision of celestial bodies in a dense star cluster, or the remnants of a destroyed planetary system. A11pl3Z may also be a so—called free-drifting body, an object unrelated to any star. He does not pose a danger to the Earth, the website writes. kp.ru .

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Evgenia Kravchenko, a senior researcher at the MIPT Laboratory of High Energy Physics and Candidate of Physico-Mathematical Sciences, told the Moscow City News Agency on July 3 that the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, which scientists recently discovered, would be impossible to see from Earth with the naked eye. The maximum approach of comet 3I/ATLAS to Earth is expected at a distance of about 270 million km.

At the same time, it was reported that a celestial body with a diameter of up to 20 km was rapidly approaching the Sun. The A11pl3Z object was discovered on July 1 using the ATLAS automatic telescope network, used by NASA to monitor celestial bodies capable of posing a threat within the Solar System, IA Regnum reports.

Dmitry Vibe, head of the Department of Physics and Stellar Evolution at the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told RT that this is the third example of an interstellar object in the Solar System. Two such objects were previously known: Comet Borisov and asteroid Oumuamua.