[slate]
First of all, we see these beautiful
clouds of gas and dust where stars form. And now we're
starting to detect these objects that have been ejected out of other star
systems. Have traveled through interstellar space and are now whizzing
through our own solar system. From these objects we can understand
how they formed as we look at their composition and nature
and compare that to how our own solar system and objects here formed.
And see how we're similar and different. [slate]
[slate]
With Hubble's very high resolution
we can hone in on the nucleus, the center part of that comet's
core and see how it separates or is different from the surrounding
more nebulous, dusty, gassy coma around
the nucleus. [slate]
[slate]
We know of a lot of comets in our solar system,
famous ones like Comet Halley and a lot of comets that are not so famous.
But they all originate in our own solar system. Usually from the outer
reaches of the solar system, and come near to the sun occasionally.
This new object discovered came from outside
our solar system. From some other star system and has traveled across
space and is whizzing through our solar system for one quick pass.
So we want to study it very well while we can.
[slate]
We're really excited because this
is only the second time we've seen an object whizzing through the
solar system from interstellar space. Now recently
we also observed an object called 'Oumuamua. This is more like
an asteroid object whizzing through the solar system. And now
the second object that we've detected looks more like a comet.
It's got a nucleus but kind of a fuzzy cloud around it we call a coma
that's got gas and dust. So by comparing
these two objects we'll be able to understand more about
interstellar objects, their origins, and what they're like.
[slate]
Interstellar space, is the space basically the space between
stars. Stars are a long way from one another and interstellar
space is all that region between those stars.
[slate]
An interstellar object
would be something like a comet or an asteroid that's traveling between
stars and star systems.
[slate]
Studying comets is very important because
comets tell us something about how star systems formed.
They're usually made of material that's very pristine and preserved from
early parts of the formation of that star system.
[slate]
A comet is an object usually thought of as kind of an
a conglomeration of dust and ice, kind of loosely
held together. A little more loosely than what we might think of as an asteroid or
a hard rock.