Keep your eye on the ball” is a motto for many athletes—and for astronomers trying to find Earth-threatening space rocks ...

Because of its hyperbolic orbit, there was first thought to be a possibility that A117uUD was an extrasolar object. Nevertheless, more investigation verified that it originated in our solar system.

Instead, its orbit would have been hyperbolic — i.e. not closed around the sun — and it would have come from somewhere beyond ...