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Comment by CalChris | Hacker News Reader

Just as a reminder,

  circle e = 0
  earth e = 0.0167
  ellipse e < 1
  parabola e = 1
  hyperbola e > 1

So at e = 3, this object is in a sense bouncing off the sun at an angle of 180 * 2 * invsec(3) / pi or ~141 degrees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eccentricity_(mathematics)

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An animation of the orbit as it is known right now: https://twitter.com/tony873004/status/1171917219485192192

This animation seems to imply it is traveling orthogonal to the ecliptic. Is that normal (maybe expected is a better word) for this kind of thing?

That's a trick of perspective. The estimated orbital elements [1] show an inclination of roughly 45 degrees between the object and the ecliptic. If you click the link in the tweet, you can rotate the model and see for yourself.

The orbital plane of the solar system is not aligned in any special orientation relative to nearby stars or the Milky Way, so we would expect interstellar objects to arrive from all directions with equal probability.

[1]: https://twitter.com/AscendingNode/status/1171845027099795456

Thanks, I was wondering if there was a perspective thing going on.

But also thinking that the larger the angle to the ecliptic, the less likely it was something that just happened to be in a very large orbit around our solar system.

From the discussion above though it sounds like the eccentricity tells us that anyway.

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