interstellar object
2I/Borisov
The first interstellar comet ever seen, discovered in 2019 by an amateur astronomer using a homemade telescope.
- Distance from Earth today
- 7.46 billion km49.84 AU · light: 6 h 54 min
- Distance from the Sun today
- 7.37 billion km49.27 AU
- As of
- 4 November 2026position from NASA/JPL orbital elements
Where it is today
Top view of the plane of Earth’s orbit, compressed distance scale. Open on the big map with the time slider →
Facts
- Perihelion
- 2.002 AU
- Orbital period
- none – open (hyperbolic) orbit
- Orbital eccentricity
- 3.352
- Orbital inclination
- 44.3°
- Perihelion passage
- 9 December 2019
- Minimum orbit distance from Earth’s orbit (MOID)
- 1.093 AU (163.5 million km)
Source of the figures: JPL Small-Body Database (public domain).
Discovery: 2019 – Gennadiy Borisov
Description
2I/Borisov is the second known interstellar object and the first that was clearly a comet. Amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov discovered it in August 2019 in Crimea with a telescope he built himself, and its hyperbolic path soon showed that it came from another star system. Unlike ʻOumuamua, it had an obvious coma and tail and looked much like comets born around the Sun, although observations found its gas unusually rich in carbon monoxide. Its visit allowed astronomers to study, for the first time, material from a comet formed around another star.