A tiny speck of light orbiting the Sun deep in our solar system is the newest member of the family of known comets. The discovery has been possible thanks to the team of astronomers of the European Space Agency (ESA) at the Teide Observatory Tenerife Asteroid Survey (TOTAS) and, therefore, it has been named after him.
Comet TOTAS was detected on February 1 while making a series of routine observations from ESA's optical tracking station on the island of Tenerife. The discovery has been corroborated by the Center for Minor Planets of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
Although the details of the new star are still unknown, except that it is a very faint object and orbits between the planets Jupiter and Mars, astronomers confirm that the comet will not approach Earth .
This is not the first time that the TOTAS team has made a discovery. Already in 2011 this team of astronomers discovered the asteroid 2011 SF108, which orbits much closer to our planet than this new comet.
