The GTC obtains the visible spectrum of the first confirmed interstellar comet

07/03/2019
Shortly before dawn on September 13th, Julia de León (IAC Severo Ochoa advance postdoctoral researcher) together with other members of the IAC's Solar System Group, and a researcher from the Complutense University of Madrid, obtained high resolution images and visible spectra of comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) using the OSIRIS instrument at the 10.4m GTC, installed in the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory. Observations were not easy because the object was at a small angular separation from the Sun, but thanks to the excellent atmospheric conditions of the Canarian Observatories and GTC's expert telescope support astronomers, these challenging observations were successfully completed. The spectrum reveals that this object has a surface composition not unlike that found in Solar System comets. >> Read more