This week’s Science (23 Oct 2025, vol. 390, #6771) proudly features:
Andy Lawrence, Interstellar visitors: Smoking and nonsmoking aec2085
Not only was this editorial commissioned by the title (the flagship title of the Science family), but it was blurbed prominently as an “Expert Voices” quote.
In it, Lawrence ponders the place of comets (including “comets”- apparently inactive bodies that we would call asteroids) in the grand scheme of astronomy. Our Sun retains a retinue of, oh, how many millions or possibly billions of comets in the Oort Cloud, unseen by human eyes (or even telescopes)? Multiply that by a majority of stars in the sky, likely to have their own oort clouds. And now we have a third interstellar object, demonstrating clearly that these oort clouds are ‘leaky’ and sending members across the galaxy. Which, in turn, implies that space is lousy with small bodies.
Truly, a significant fraction of the universe, and of astronomy, those comets (and “comets”). And that’s before any claims of extraterrestrial volition (which Lawrence handles nicely). Small bodies do not need to be manufactured to be marvels to us. We just need eyes to see.