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Interstellar comets penetrating through the Solar System had been anticipated for decades 1,2 . The discovery of asteroidal-looking 'Oumuamua 3,4 was thus a huge surprise and a puzzle. Furthermore, the physical properties of the 'first scout' turned out to be impossible to reconcile with Solar System objects 4-6 , challenging our view of interstellar minor bodies 7,8 . Here, we report the identification and early characterization of a new interstellar object, which has an evidently cometary appearance. The body was discovered by Gennady Borisov on 30 August 2019 UT and subsequently identified as hyperbolic by our data mining code in publicly available astrometric data. The initial orbital solution implies a very high hyperbolic excess speed of ~32 km s −1 , consistent with 'Oumuamua 9 and theoretical predictions 2,7 . Images taken on 10 and 13 September 2019 UT with the William Herschel Telescope and Gemini North Telescope show an extended coma and a faint, broad tail. We measure a slightly reddish colour with a g′-r′ colour index of 0.66 ± 0.01 mag, compatible with Solar System comets. The observed morphology is also unremarkable and best explained by dust with a power-law sizedistribution index of -3.7 ± 1.8 and a low ejection speed (44 ± 14 m s −1 for β = 1 particles, where β is the ratio of the solar gravitational attraction to the solar radiation pressure).The nucleus is probably ~1 km in radius, again a common value among Solar System comets, and has a negligible chance of experiencing rotational disruption. Based on these early characteristics, and putting its hyperbolic orbit aside, 2I/Borisov appears indistinguishable from the native Solar System comets.

We show that 'Oumuamua's excited spin could be in a high energy LAM state, which implies that its shape could be far from the highly elongated shape found in previous studies. CLEAN and ANOVA algorithms are used to analyze 'Oumuamua's lightcurve using 818 observations over 29.3 days. Two fundamental periodicities are found at frequencies (2.77±0.11) and (6.42±0.18) cycles/day, corresponding to (8.67±0.34) h and (3.74±0.11) h, respectively. The phased data show that the lightcurve does not repeat in a simple manner, but approximately shows a double minimum at 2.77 cycles/day and a single minimum at 6.42 cycles/day. This is characteristic of an excited spin state. 'Oumuamua could be spinning in either the long (LAM) or short (SAM) axis mode. For both, the long axis precesses around the total angular momentum vector with an average period of (8.67±0.34) h. For the three LAMs we have found, the possible rotation periods around the long axis are 6.58, 13.15, or 54.48 h, with 54.48 h being the most likely. 'Oumuamua may also be nutating with respective periods of half of these values. We have also found two possible SAM states where 'Oumuamua oscillates around the long axis with possible periods at 13.15 and 54.48 h, the latter as the most likely. In this case any nutation will occur with the same periods. Determination of the spin state, the amplitude of the nutation, the direction of the TAMV, and the average total spin period may be possible with a direct model fit to the lightcurve. We find that 'Oumuamua is "cigar-shaped", if close to its lowest rotational energy, and an extremely oblate spheroid if close to its highest energy state for its total angular momentum.

Closed circuit television systems (CCTV) are becoming more and more popular and are being deployed in many offices, housing estates and in most public spaces. Monitoring systems have been implemented in many European and American cities. This makes for an enormous load for the CCTV operators, as the number of camera views a single operator can monitor is limited by human factors. In this paper, we focus on the task of automated detection and recognition of dangerous situations for CCTV systems. We propose algorithms that are able to alert the human operator when a firearm or knife is visible in the image. We have focused on limiting the number of false alarms in order to allow for a real-life application of the system. The specificity and sensitivity of the knife detection are significantly better than others published recently. We have also managed to propose a version of a firearm detection algorithm that offers a near-zero rate of false alarms. We have shown that it is possible to create a system that is capable of an early warning in a dangerous situation, which may lead to faster and more effective response times and a reduction in the number of potential victims.

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