Comet Enthusiast

A new infrared image of the Tadpole nebula, a star-forming hub in the Auriga constellation about 12,000 light-years from Earth accidentally captured an asteroid in our solar system passing by. The asteroid, called 1719 Jens discovered in 1950, orbits in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The space rock, which has a diameter of 19 kilometers (12 miles), left tracks across the image, seen as a line of yellow-green dots in the boxes near center. A second asteroid, called 1992 UZ5, was also observed cruising by, as highlighted in the boxes near the upper left (the larger boxes are blown-up versions of the smaller ones).