Press enter or click to view image in full size The retrograde trajectory of 3I/ATLAS is perfectly aligned with the plane of the planets around the Sun, with a random chance of 1 in 500. Was this path designed by alien intelligence? (Image credit: theskylive.com) Science is fun. It offers an opportunity to learn something new, as long as we …
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Press enter or click to view image in full size (Image credit: Max Barry/Nation States) A simple way to distinguish a spacecraft from a rock is through its large non-gravitational acceleration. A natural icy rock like a comet is propelled by its mass loss. That mass loss can be observed through the cometary plume of gas and dust that surrounds …
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Zoom image will be displayed The Hubble Space Telescope image of 3I/ATLAS shows diffuse emission that extends ahead of the object as it approaches the Sun. The yellow and green arrows mark, respectively, the projected negative heliocentric velocity vector and the projected anti-solar direction. (Image credit: Jewitt et al. 2025) Today, two new papers about 3I/ATLAS were posted online. The …
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Zoom image will be displayed The interstellar object 3I/ATLAS was discovered in a region of the sky that is crowded with stars, making it difficult to notice. The discovery image by the ATLAS telescope is shown in the inset image bracketed by the red box, which provides a zoomed-in view of the region where 3I/ATLAS was discovered. (Image credit: ATLAS/University …
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Zoom image will be displayed Intensity maps of 3I/ATLAS from stacking datasets collected on the 4th (top row) and 29th (bottom row) of July 2025, showing no visible cometary tail. The arrows point the directions to the Sun, north, east, and the negative velocity vector of the comet as seen on the plane of the sky. (Image credit: Santana-Ros et …
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Zoom image will be displayed The Juno spacecraft. (Image credit: NASA) The interstellar object 3I/ATLAS was discovered on July 1, 2025. It is expected to arrive at a distance of 53.6 million kilometers from Jupiter on March 16, 2026. In a new paper (accessible here) that I wrote with the brilliant Adam Hibberd and Adam Crowl, we show that applying …
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Zoom image will be displayed (Image credit: NASA) By now, I have a pretty reliable method for gauging whether the scientific study of the new interstellar object 3I/ATLAS went viral. When the carpenter that fixes the porch at my home or the mechanic that changes the oil in my wife’s car, both ask my wife with great interest for the …
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