Newly discovered comet gets kicked out of solar system by Saturn at 6,710 mph

Scientists have discovered a comet traveling in one direction out of the solar system after a close encounter with Saturn.

The comet, known as Comet A117uUD (A117uUD), was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on June 14, 2024.

The researchers used 142 observations of the comet to “recreate” its orbit around the sun.

This revealed that A117uUD encountered Saturn, the second-largest solar planet famous for its bright and distinctive rings, in 2022 and was forever changed.

What caused comet’s way back?

The encounter with Saturn altered the comet’s orbit to a highly flattened or elliptical shape, propelling it into interstellar space beyond the sun’s influence.

After simulating the trajectory of A117uUD, the team determined that it would leave the solar system traveling at approximately 6,710 miles per hour (10,800 km/h), which is roughly four and a half times faster than the maximum speed of a Lockheed Martin F-16 jet fighter.

This is only the second solar system comet we have seen being launched out of the solar system.

The first comet, C/1980 E1 (Bowell), was placed on a path out of the solar system after encountering Jupiter on December 9, 1980.

“According to our findings, comet A117uUD shares similarities with C/1980 E1 (Bowell), which suggests that it is not of extrasolar origin,” wrote the research team in a paper published in the journal Research Notes of the AAS.

“The fact that two ejections after planetary encounter were observed in less than 45 years suggests that such events are relatively frequent.”

An intruder

It was sometimes clear that A117uUD was a celestial body on a path to leave its home solar system.

When the team first analyzed the icy space rock, they thought its hyperbolic orbit indicated that it was an intruder into the solar system.

The first interstellar object discovered by humanity was the strangely shaped asteroid 1I/‘Oumuamua. Its name is Hawaiian origin and roughly translates to “messenger from afar arriving first.”

When it was discovered in 2017, ‘Oumuamua immediately stood out to astronomers because of its highly unusual shape and the fact that it had no coma or distinctive cometary tail despite appearing to be a strange comet/asteroid hybrid.

It was moving away from the sun accelerated, leading to the now-disproved suggestion that this interstellar visitor could be an alien spacecraft.

The solution to these unique features was the roasting of ‘Oumuamua by cosmic radiation before reaching the solar system, which caused hydrogen to be created and become trapped within its body.

Once Oumuamua entered our planetary system, hydrogen was released, propelling it forward.

‘Oumuamua is currently beyond Neptune’s orbit, traveling through the Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy bodies near the solar system’s outer edge.

Not only is it beyond the reach of our telescopes, but the interstellar visitor will never return to Earth or the sun.

Like ‘Oumuamua, 2I/Borisov was simply passing through, briefly captivating astronomers and the general public as it journeyed towards exiting the solar system, never to return.

The encounter between A117uUD and Saturn impacted the comet’s orbit, so the team could not reconstruct it before the meet-up. Still, they did enough to assure themselves this wasn’t a third extrasolar interloper.