164: Postcards to the cosmos with Dr. Bannister
Dr. Michele Bannister talks about interstellar objects, including the recent discovery of 2I Borisov. Astronomers are observing this object with every available telescope to answer key questions, such as: what is Borisov made of? Is it like comets from our own solar system, or is it "really weird and different"? Dr. Bannister fills us in on the latest results. This episode was recorded on November 13th, 2019.
An image of the MUSE instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT). Dr. Bannister notes that it looks like "a giant bunch of octopuses". Photo by A. Tudorica/ESO (source).