The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on 6 August 2025 using its Near-Infrared Spectrograph. The research team is analysing Webb’s data, with a preprint now available online. Webb is one of several space telescopes studying this comet, helping to reveal its size, physical properties, and chemical composition. For example, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s …
Read More »Mysterious ‘alien’ comet puzzles NASA scientists Chron James Webb Space Telescope takes 1st look at interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS with unexpected results Space Is it a comet, or an alien spacecraft? Here’s what one Harvard scientist says NBC Boston A Steeply-Rising Production of Cyanide and Nickel Without Iron in the Gas Plume Around 3I/ATLAS Avi Loeb – Medium NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is latest …
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Researchers used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to observe 3I/ATLAS on Aug. 6. (Image credit: NASA/James Webb Space Telescope) Astronomers have found something strange in the James Webb Space Telescope‘s first images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it hurtles toward our sun, according to a new study. The telescope’s initial observations suggested that 3I/ATLAS has one of the highest carbon …
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Aug. 27 (UPI) — NASA observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS through the lens of the James Webb Space Telescope for the first time. On Aug. 6, the telescope with its near-infrared Spectrograph instrument analyzed the comet as it provided more information about its size, physical properties, and chemical makeup. This kind of observation can help make clear what conditions were like …
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Ever since interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS whizzed into our cosmic neighborhood in July, astronomers have been racing to uncover its characteristics. Now that the powerful James Webb Space Telescope has taken a good look at this icy interloper, it seems to be weirder than anyone imagined. A preprint submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters for peer review on Monday, August 25, …
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The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has observed the interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS for the first time. The powerful space telescope trained its infrared vision and its Near-Infrared Spectrograph instrument (NIRspec) on the comet on Aug. 6, 2025. Discovered on July 1 by the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey telescope, 3I/ATLAS is just the third-ever object found drifting through …
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Comet 3I/ATLAS, the third known and fastest interstellar object to fly across the Solar System, is at it again. The latest oddity shown by this comet is how it is spewing dust. As they get closer to the Sun, comets typically release a tail of gas and dust and a second tail of ions. Comet 3I’s tail is still pretty …
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An object that came from outside our solar system is hurtling towards the sun at roughly 61km (38 miles) a second. First detected in July, this visitor from outer space – known as 3I/Atlas – is only the third known interstellar object to have been observed, after ‘Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. Excitement has been growing since the …
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A “devil” comet’s water is strikingly similar to the water on Earth, researchers have discovered. The finding supports the idea that water was brought to our planet through comet impacts, helping set the stage for life to evolve, the team reported Aug. 8 in the journal Nature Astronomy. “Our new results provide the strongest evidence yet that at least some …
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Roughly 12,800 years ago, as Earth was emerging from its last great ice age, temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere suddenly plummeted back to near-glacial conditions. The cause of this abrupt shift—known as the Younger Dryas cool period—remains a mystery to this day, but new evidence may give credence to its most controversial explanation. Researchers analyzed sediment cores extracted from the …
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