Comet A117uUD Goes Interstellar after Encountering Saturn in 2022

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SUMMARY

Comet A117uUD, discovered by ATLAS South Africa on June 14, 2024, achieved a hyperbolic orbit after a close encounter with Saturn in 2022. Its current eccentricity is measured at 1.037 ± 0.002, indicating a trajectory that allows it to exit the solar system. This event parallels the historical case of Comet C/1980 E1 (Bowell), which also attained a hyperbolic path following its interaction with Jupiter. The findings underscore the dynamic nature of small solar system bodies and their interactions with giant planets.

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Astronuc
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https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ad65fc
Small solar system bodies may reach hyperbolic orbits after a close interaction with a giant planet. Comet C/1980 E1 (Bowell), with a current value of the eccentricity of 1.057733 ± 0.000008, reached its present-day path after a close encounter with Jupiter in 1980. Comet A117uUD was found by ATLAS South Africa on 2024 June 14. Its current orbit determination, based on 142 observations for a data-arc span of 31 days, places A117uUD among the bodies following hyperbolic orbits (19.51σ, eccentricity of 1.037 ± 0.002). However, it did not come from interstellar space. Here, we show that it reached its current hyperbolic trajectory after a close encounter with Saturn in 2022.

How it is reported in the media - Saturn throws comet out of solar system at 6,700 mph (10800 km/h): What astronomers think happened
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...-throw-interstellar-solar-system/74644604007/
In a paper published in July, astronomers determined that the comet was flung away from Saturn at a speed fast enough to send it on a hyperbolic trajectory, meaning it had the momentum required to exit our solar system and enter interstellar space. However, the comet's origin before it came upon Saturn remains difficult to infer, the researchers wrote.
 
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Astronuc said:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ad65fc


How it is reported in the media - Saturn throws comet out of solar system at 6,700 mph (10800 km/h): What astronomers think happened
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...-throw-interstellar-solar-system/74644604007/
Is your post just for information or did you want a comment? The situation you report can't be too rare but spotting it will not be common because it involves a small thing, a long way away. I guess there will be as many inter stellar objects captured by planetary systems as objects flung out of an 'established' orbit round a star.
You have to take your hat off for the observers. We have an advantage of vast amounts of available data these days from the huge array of observatories and satellites. Big Data
 

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