A Queen's University Belfast scientist is leading an international team in studying a new visitor in our solar system - the first known comet or asteroid to visit us from another star.
The fast-moving object, now named A/2017 U1, was initially spotted on 18 October in Hawaii by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii.
Astronomers immediately started studying it that night with the William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands, then on Thursday night with the Very Large Telescope in Chile.
The initial data implies it is a small rocky or icy object that may have been drifting through our galaxy for millions or even billions of years, before entering our solar system by chance.
The object flew into the solar system from above, was close to the Sun last month, and is now already on its way back out to the stars.
Despite suspecting such objects existed and looking out for them over past decades, scientists have never seen such an interstellar visitor until now.
Here is another newly found asteroid set to pass very close to our planet.
Asteroid 2017 BS32 set to pass between Earth and the Moon Feb. 02. The space rock was first observed by Catalina Sky Survey on 2017-01-30.
It will fly by Earth at a distance of 161280 km which is about 0.4 times the distance to the Moon at a speed (relative to the Earth) of 11.57 km/s. It is estimated to be 11 m - 26 meters in size. It has a condition code of 7 belongs to a group of asteroids, named Aten.
Southern California witnessed streaks of fire across the sky on Wednesday evening, July 27, 2016.
Youtube states: ''What appeared to be 2 burning bright lights amazed citizens of California, Utah, Nevada and Arizona on the night of July 27, 2016 @ 9:40 pm. The lights burned across the night sky for several seconds leaving an impressive ''stardust-like'' long trail behind it, and one witness says he heard a ''boom'' about 5 minutes after it had disappeared. This event looks eerily similar to an event that occured 24 years ago over the eastern US, which WAS a large meteor that fragmented and one of the fragments crashed into a parked car!''
Join Dark Journalist in this epic episode as he welcomes Worldwide Best-Selling Author Graham Hancock to the show. Graham has just released, 'Magicians of the Gods' the heavily anticipated and long-awaited followup sequel to his classic book on Advanced Lost Civilizations and Ancient Mysteries, ''Fingerprints of the Gods'.
The Great Return
Magicians of the Gods is a powerful, knowledge-packed, groundbreaking investigation of our advanced ancient origins and has now been released in the UK and will be released in the US in early November. This pre-publication, US Exclusive preview of the book goes deeply into the startling revelations that Graham has discovered correlating his previous work with amazing new archaeological findings!
Graham takes us through his whirlwind world travels to important new discoveries such as the enigmatic 12,000 year old ancient site at Gobekli Tepe in Turkey that was buried intentionally in an underground complex 30 times the size of the Stonehenge!
The discovery of this game-changing archaeological site will rewrite history and support his idea that the history of civilization goes far beyond the standard model back to a highly advanced culture of wisdom teachers called 'The Seven Sages'.
These antediluvian, pre-flood/cataclysm travelers transmitted their advanced knowledge of architecture, technology and spirituality to developing primitive cultures and were the root inspiration for the story of Atlantis. They were also responsible for the high cultures of Egypt, the Maya, Sumeria, and others that are only now being discovered such as the new findings of a pyramid building culture in Java that is dated to 20,000 years ago! Ultimately The Seven Sages and their impact on human destiny was forgotten by history and survived only in myths that refer to ancient wise teachers interacting with early humanity and gifting culture to them.
Giant Comet
Even more shocking is the new evidence that has surfaced suggesting that this advanced civilization was destroyed by the lightning fast action of a devastating Giant Comet. Graham surmises that many of their messages in time capsules such as the complex at Gobekli Tepe and the grandeur of the Great Pyramid of Giza and Sphinx may be a warning of the return of this destructive comet that can easily wipe out civilization.
