Interstellar Visitors: A Physical Characterization of Comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) with OSIRIS at the 10.4 m GTC
Abstract
Comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) -later renamed 2I/Borisov- was discovered on August 30, 2019 by G. Borisov observing from Crimea. The value of its orbital eccentricity was initially found to be over 3.6 that made this object only the second interstellar minor body ever found, after 1I/2017 U1 ('Oumuamua). Here, we present early photometric, spectroscopic, and numerical results about this object. Observational results have been acquired using the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), located at the El Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory (La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain) with the OSIRIS camera-spectrograph. Our images confirm the cometary nature of 2I/Borisov. We obtained a total of three low-resolution, visible spectra of 300 seconds in the 4900-9200 Angstrom wavelength range at low solar elongation (43.6 degrees). The visible spectrum of C/2019 Q4 resembles those of typical cometary nuclei with a value of the spectral slope roughly in the middle of the range of visible spectral slopes observed for cometary nuclei in the Solar system. All the N-body simulations performed indicate that it came from interstellar space and it will return to it. Its barycentric radiant appears projected close to open star cluster Stock 2.
- Publication:
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Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- September 2019
- DOI:
- 10.3847/2515-5172/ab449c
- Bibcode:
- 2019RNAAS...3..131D
- Keywords:
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- Comets;
- Aperiodic comets;
- 1469