That's closer than the moon. Should get a good look at that distance.
Looks like a white dot.
I thought 110K mph was fast. Then I saw the fastest recorded object in the solar system was a comet that went right into the sun at 1.34 million mph in 2016.
The Daily Mail reporter seems to have dropped three zeros.
Space.com has its closest approach being around the orbit of Mars.
“The comet’s closest approach to the sun, which will occur in December, will be at roughly 186 million miles (300 million km), or twice Earth’s average distance from the sun.”
https://www.space.com/interstellar-comet-borisov-looks-normal.html
‘Make of this what you will, but based on these initial characteristics, this object appears indistinguishable from the native Solar System comets,’ said Mr Guzik.
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Much more cooler, impressive and relative to life as we know it now than all those other boring interstellar objects we have seen in all of our time examining the cosmos.
Can we get more government grant money now?
https://phys.org/news/2019-10-astronomers-cyanide-gas-interstellar-2iborisov.html
Snip
“...Using data gathered by the William Herschel Telescope (WHT), an international team of astronomers found that 2I/Borisov contains cyanide. But as Douglas Adams would famously say, “Don’t Panic!”...”
Snip
“...But before anyone gets to thinking that this could pose a danger to life on Earth, a few caveats are necessary. For starters, based on 2I/Borisov’s trajectory, the comet will pass beyond the orbit of Mars. By December 8th, 2019, it will make its closest approach to the sun, reaching under 2 AU in distance (or twice the distance between the sun and Earth).
This means that Earth has no chance of passing through the comet’s tail, and therefore will not be getting any cyanide gas in its atmosphere. Second, something very similar happened back in 1910, when Earth passed through the orbit of Halley’s Comet, and our atmosphere brushed with its tail for a period lasting six hours. Prior to this, astronomers announced that they had obtained spectra that indicated the presence of cyanogenic gas in its tail.
While most astronomers insisted there was nothing to worry about, a French astronomer (Camille Flammarion) was less than optimistic. The New York Times quoted him as saying, “Cyanogen gas would impregnate the atmosphere and possibly snuff out all life on the planet.” Many people took this warning seriously and began to panic. But guess what? Like so many other apocalyptic predictions, this one was spectacularly wrong.
This time around, Earth won’t even pass through the comet’s tail, so it’s fair to say that the risk is non-existent. So… you know, don’t panic. There is no danger, and the presence of this comet in our solar system represents a major opportunity to conduct serious astronomical research and should be recognized as such.”
*ping*