"Rendezvous with Rama"
(Arthur C. Clarke)
This is the story of humanity's encounter with
a messenger from another civilization. It tells about
the coming of what appears to be a comet,
but is actually a 100km long hollow cylinder.
Commander Norton, captain of the spaceship 'Endeavor'
is directed to investigate. He finds an apparently
dead colonization ship, but all is not as it seems...
for, as it hurtles towards the warmth of the sun, the
spacecraft begins to awaken...
The first chapter of this book mentions the
Spaceguard project,
whose computers detect the intruder while still beyond the
orbit of Jupiter.