An amateur astronomer has discovered a comet that could come from outside our Solar System.

If so, it would be the second interstellar object after the elongated body known as ‘Oumuamua was identified in 2017.

The Minor Planet Center (MPC) at Harvard University has issued a formal announcement of the discovery.

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The next few days will see a rare convergence of asteroid-related activity in Europe, as planetary defence and other experts meet in three locations to coordinate humanity’s efforts to defend ourselves from hazardous space rocks.

Such intense levels of international scientific collaboration are driven in part by the fact that an asteroid impact could cause devastating effects on Earth.

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By Jonathan Amos, BBC Science Correspondent

Scientists have a recording of the worst day on Earth; certainly the worst day in the last 66 million years.

It takes the form of a 130m section of rock drilled from under the Gulf of Mexico.

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A land and air search was launched in Devon after a suspected meteor was feared to be an aircraft breaking up in the sky.

Numerous callers alerted police to the flying object during the early hours of Sunday.

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Knowledge is power, and NASA has just invested $19
million into the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to gain a lot of knowledge
about asteroids.

NASA awarded the University of Central Florida
(which manages the site on behalf of National Science Foundation) the four-year
grant to observe and characterize near-Earth objects (NEO) that pose a
potential hazard to Earth or that could be candidates for future space
missions.

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Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has previously
claimed that the Earth has no defence against giant asteroids approaching the
planet, with NASA and SpaceX currently developing systems that would help to
redirect space rocks from bumping into the Earth.

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In the summer of 2018, the asteroid Ryugu, which
measures only approximately 850 metres across, was visited by the Japanese
Hayabusa2 spacecraft. On board was the 10-kilogram German-French Mobile
Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) – a lander no bigger than a microwave oven and
equipped with four instruments.

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The existing astronomical observatories on Maunakea
returned to operations this weekend, and it didn’t take long for a significant
result to be achieved, not only for science, but for assuring the safety of the
Earth.

Observations of the near-Earth asteroid 2006 QV89
made on August 11 with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) have ruled out
any potential future impact threat to the Earth by this asteroid for the next
century.

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After months grappling with the rugged reality of
asteroid Bennu’s surface, the team leading NASA’s first asteroid sample return
mission has selected four potential sites for the Origins, Spectral
Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer
(OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft to “tag” its cosmic dance partner.

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On 25 July, an asteroid the size of a football
field flew by Earth, coming within 65 000 km of our planet’s surface during its
closest approach – about one fifth of the distance to the Moon.

The 100 m-wide asteroid dubbed ‘2019 OK’

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