By definition, scientists don’t know what to expect as they inspect the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, since it’s only the third object detected from beyond the solar system in human history.
But the surprises just keep coming. The mysterious entity, which was first spotted hurtling towards the Sun from far beyond in early July, has fascinated researchers ever since. As Science Alert points out, a quartet of powerful telescopes — NASA’s Hubble, SPHEREx, Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), and James Webb Space Telescope — have now turned their powerful gazes to observe 3I/ATLAS.
And while there’s a broad consensus among experts that the object is a comet — a small, icy body that releases gases as it passes by the Sun — the data tells a strikingly more nuanced story, making clear that the object is deeply strange in ways that will make it a topic of study and comparison for many years.
For one, SPHEREx and James Webb observations have both shown that its coma, which a large atmosphere of gas and dust that surrounds a comet’s nucleus, bears a much higher proportion of carbon dioxide gas than expected. In fact, scientists found it to have the highest carbon dioxide to water ratio ever observed in a comet.
TESS, which had technically already spotted the object months ahead of its July discovery that were later found in its archived observations, showed the object was already bright and active when it was six astronomical units from the Sun, well past the orbit of Jupiter, far more distant to be showing activity than most comets.
NASA’s Hubble revealed a “teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust coming off of the comet’s solid, icy nucleus,” yet it “does not feature a distinct cometary tail,” according to Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb (who has colorfully suggested that the object could have been sent to us by an extraterrestrial civilization.)
The object’s origins remain as elusive as ever. In a preprint paper, an international team of researchers posited that 3I/ATLAS may contain “ices exposed to higher levels of radiation than Solar System comets,” or it could’ve “formed close to the CO2 ice line in its parent protoplanetary disk.”
For now, we’ll have to be patient until the findings — as well as any future observations before it screams back out of the solar system’s other side — undergo further analysis and peer review.
By the time the object makes its departure, it will have made relatively close flybys of Jupiter, Mars, and Venus. Loeb has proposed that NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter should have a closer look, as the object comes within less than two million miles of the Red Planet.
And roughly five months later, NASA’s Juno probe could intercept it as it approaches Jupiter. Perhaps then, we could finally get a better sense of its peculiar nature.
More on the object: Mysterious Object Headed Toward Mars
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