A comet reportedly the size of Mount Kilimanjaro is hurtling towards the Sun. Scientists say the 'alien' rock has travelled from another solar system.
The 3.7 miles wide comet was first spotted in 1986 by a homemade cardboard telescope, and is set to have its closest approach to the sun in over five years today, having travelled inside the orbit of Mercury. Scientists believe its unusual orbit was caused by being ejected from its home solar system by the gravity of a giant exoplanet.
Following a collision with Jupiter, astronomers have indicated it began its odd trajectory, which has also travelled around our star, the Daily Mail reports.
The comet's irregularities do not stop there, as analysis has revealed it is also low in carbon and contains less than 1.5 per cent of the usual levels of the chemical cyanogen. This has led scientists to believe that it may have came from a different solar system.
With the space rock heading towards our star once again, experts are eager to discover more about it. It is currently monitored by the European Space Agency's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, which tracked its closest approach to the sun in 1996, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017.
Astrophysicist at the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC Karl Battams told spaceweather.com: "96P is a very atypical comet, both in composition and in behaviour, so we never know exactly what we might see. Hopefully we can get some beautiful science out of this and share [it] with everyone as soon as we can."
The comet will be three times closer to the sun than Mercury as it makes its closest approach to the sun in five years today (Tuesday).
Interestingly Machholz 1's size is the catalyst in its survival. Most comets burn as they get closer to the sun as they are usually smaller than 32 feet (10 metres) wide, whereas Maccholz 1 is protected and has therefore made five close passes since its discovery in 1986.
The comet was named after American amateur astronomer Don Machholz, who discovered 12 comets in his lifetime before passing away in August 2022 aged 69. He had spent over 9,000 hours comet hunting over more than 50 years.
Scientists have entertained the idea that if the space rock did not come from another solar system, and is therefore not 'alien', it is possible that it had its cyanogen eroded by numerous journeys around the sun. NASA say Machholz 1 is the SOHO spacecraft's "most frequent cometary visitor".
Over 3,000 comets has been spotted by the probe since its inception in 1995, despite its primary aim being to observe the sun for the causes of geomagnetic storms on Earth.
