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Crimean amateur astronomer discovers new comet in solar system

In April, the astronomer said that he had discovered a large asteroid with a diameter of about 200 meters, potentially dangerous for the Earth

SIMFEROPOL, November 14. /TASS/. Gennady Borisov, an amateur astronomer from Crimea, has discovered a new Solar System comet. According to Borisov himself, he has now become the second in the world among amateur astronomers in discovering comets.

In April, the astronomer told TASS that he had discovered a large asteroid with a diameter of about 200 meters, potentially dangerous for the Earth. In 2019, he discovered an interstellar comet, which received his name.

"I have discovered a new comet. The discovery happened in the early morning of November 8. This evening I received a certificate from the Harvard Minor Planet Center, which registered the comet and gave it the name C/2024 V1 (Borisov)," the astronomer told TASS.

Borisov also said that he had been searching for the new comet for more than a year and had spent a lot of time observing and processing data. He admitted that he was almost out of energy when he made the discovery. "It was almost morning and I was checking the northern region of the sky in the Big Dipper constellation when I found an object that at first appeared to be an asteroid. I continued to observe, take pictures, gather information, and saw that the object actually had a faint tail. It was a comet!" the astronomer said.

The confirmation came from several astronomers around the world who had also observed it. This was followed by a circular letter from Harvard confirming the discovery.

The comet discovered by the Crimean resident became the 13th comet in his account. In fact, he now ranks second in the world among amateur astronomers in terms of comets discovered: the first place belongs to a researcher from Australia, who has 18 comets to his credit. The Borisov comet will be at a distance of one and a half astronomical magnitudes from the Earth by February 2025. It will be between Mars and Jupiter. The comet will make its next pass in 3,700 years. It has a diameter of several hundred meters. In total, astronomers have discovered just over 4,500 comets in the history of observation.

Amateur astronomer

Borisov lives in the village of Nauchny, Crimea, and builds his own telescopes to observe celestial bodies. His first discoveries were made in 2013. Since the beginning of 2024, he has discovered 68 near-Earth asteroids and more than 130 in total.