Wrong Way Asteroid in Solar Orbit. Link

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

An asteroid in backwards orbit around the Sun?
http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_2388434,00.html

Montreal - Canadian, French and US astronomers have found a strange asteroid with an odd orbit which could help explain the origin of comets, the National Research Council of Canada reported Thursday.

“The asteroid, currently named 2008 KV42, is orbiting the Sun backwards and almost perpendicular to the orbits of the planets - a 104 degree tilt. This odd orbit suggests that 2008 KV42 may have been pulled into our solar system from the Oort Cloud,” the council said in a statement.

They should name it Widdershins.

[Rhythmdvl]

If it hits the Earth, does that mean all the dinosaurs will come back to life?

Does it mean someone will make a good movie about trying to stop it?

The possibilities are endless!

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

@Rhythmdvl

If it hits the Earth, does that mean all the dinosaurs will come back to life?

Does it mean someone will make a good movie about trying to stop it?

The possibilities are endless!

:dubious:

I had hoped Bad Astronomer had returned…

[Lust4Life]

I wonder if the Solar System has ever picked up any interstellar wanderers in its travels?

And would there be any way of recognising them as such if we did?

[Musicat]

From the news link:

The Oort cloud is a theoretical sphere surrounding the solar system but far out from it believed to hold billions of comets. The discovery could shed light on how they transition from the cloud into objects like Halley’s Comet.

Paging Dr. Phil…no, the other one…

How does this discovery “shed light on how they transition…”? I imagine that just a little, teeny-weeny bump – sort of like the butterfly in Brazil causing a hurricane in Florida – could cause an Oort Cloud object to fall into the solar system. How does this expand our knowledge of such an event?