The unique rocky comet C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS)

Observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope, and the Canada France Hawai`i Telescope, show that C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS) is the first object to be discovered that is on a long-period cometary orbit, but that has the characteristics of a pristine inner Solar System asteroid. It may provide important clues about how the Solar System formed.

This diagram shows the probable history of this object in both the inner and outer Solar System over a period of more than four billion years.The majority of this time was spent in the cold outskirts, in the Oort Cloud.