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Astronomers race to study interstellar interloper

(www.science.org)
125 points bikenaga | 1 comments | 11 Jul 25 15:43 UTC | HN request time: 0.225s | source
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ddahlen ◴[11 Jul 25 19:21 UTC] No.44535954[source]▶
I'm one of those astronomers! I'm working on my PhD in orbital dynamics.

A lot of people are requesting discretionary time on telescopes trying to get observations in. The orbit will put us on the other side of the sun when 3I is nearest the sun in october, we can see it now and after it comes back out from behind the sun.

Unfortunately, right now the it is in a very crowded star field (IE, its close to the galactic plane, lots of stars in the background).

If you are interested in orbital dynamics, I have an open source rust/python package for accurate orbital calculations of asteroids/comets:

https://github.com/dahlend/kete

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1. metalman ◴[11 Jul 25 21:35 UTC] No.44536989[source]▶
you lucky so and so

many things are labeled historic, though some very very tiny number will actualy retain the power to inspire as this event will we have all dreamed of going into space to discover whatever is there, but as it turns out these interstelar objects are bringing us the only real physical evidence that we will ever get a good look at