comets

A 170,000-year visitor from the Oort Cloud has brightened faster than expected, reaching magnitude 4.7 and growing a 10-degree ion tail as it heads for its closest solar approach on April 19.

Six months of observations of the third interstellar object ever detected have uncovered water, methane, and hydrogen cyanide in its coma--and a Jupiter flyby on March 16 could yield the closest-ever look at an interstellar visitor.