Institute for Advanced Study / Princeton University Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

In the solar system as elsewhere, we learn most from the unexpected. I will describe three recent observational projects challenging existing ideas about solar system objects, and provoking new ones. The freaks are an interstellar object (‘Oumuamua) and a long-period comet (C/2017 K2), active far beyond Uranus. The conundrum concerns the origin of the Trojans of Neptune in the context of planetary migration.