02: Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov (Part II)

In part II of our 2I/Borisov series for the GEMMA Podcast, I interview Michał Drahus, a FUGA Postdoctoral Fellow at the Astronomical Observatory of Jagiellonian University in Poland. We discuss the timeline of his team in Poland starting with notification of the comet, how they coordinated observations with Gemini North telescope, and what they’ve learned so far from their data.

Then, we discuss the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), an upcoming facility of NSF’s Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, and how it will change astronomy done by professional and amateur astronomers. Finally, we commend Gennady Borisov for discovering interstellar visitor C/2019 Q4 (AKA 2I/Borisov) with a 65 cm telescope that he built himself, his intuition to look for comets near the sun, an area that observatories avoid, and how weʻll learn a lot more about this comet as it gets brighter on its approach to the sun in the coming months.