A new analysis of our solar system’s interstellar interloper, 3I/ATLAS, reveal that it’s spewing huge amounts of water — and astronomers can’t immediately explain why. The object, which is widely believed to be comet, showed strong ultraviolet emissions that are unmistakable telltales of hydroxyl gas (OH), a byproduct of water, when astronomers imaged it with the with NASA’s Neil Gehrels …
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Using ultra-fast laser pulses and special cameras, scientists have simulated an optical illusion that appears to defy Einstein’s theory of special relativity. One consequence of special relativity is that fast-moving objects should appear shortened in the direction of motion — a phenomenon known as Lorentz contraction. This effect has been confirmed indirectly in particle accelerator experiments. But in 1959, mathematician …
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A new analysis of our solar system’s interstellar interloper, 3I/ATLAS, reveal that it’s spewing huge amounts of water — and astronomers can’t immediately explain why. The object, which is widely believed to be comet, showed strong ultraviolet emissions that are unmistakable telltales of hydroxyl gas (OH), a byproduct of water, when astronomers imaged it with the with NASA’s Neil Gehrels …
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Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images A new analysis of our solar system’s interstellar interloper, 3I/ATLAS, reveal that it’s spewing huge amounts of water — and astronomers can’t immediately explain why. The object, which is widely believed to be comet, showed strong ultraviolet emissions that are unmistakable telltales of hydroxyl gas (OH), a byproduct of water, when …
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Press enter or click to view image in full size The men’s 100-meter dash final at the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Credit: Wikimedia) As the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS passes through our cosmic backyard, bounded by the orbits of Mars and Earth around the Sun during the month of October 2025, the time is ripe to evaluate its gravity. A good …
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Astronomers have broken two records in one thanks to an incredible serendipitous alignment of cosmic objects. It’s the highest resolution detection of a gravitationally lensed radio arc, and within it, a small kink indicating the presence of a small gravitational mass – the smallest ever seen, creating this effect at cosmic distances. The rest of this article is behind a …
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Observation The VLBI observation of JVAS B1938+666 used for this work was performed using a global VLBI array combining antennas from the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) and European VLBI Network (EVN) at 1.7 GHz for 14 h at a data recording rate of 512 Mbits s−1 (ID: GM068; Principal Investigator: McKean). The observing strategy followed a standard phase referencing mode only for the …
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Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is on the opposite side of the sun from Earth – but several spacecraft are in the perfect position to get a closer look. As 3I/ATLAS warps and grows the closer it gets to our solar system’s star, public fascination with the unusual cosmic outsider only seems to become stronger. The object is one of only three space objects originating from …
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A new member of the solar system’s far outskirts refuses to follow the usual script. The object, 2023 KQ14, nicknamed Ammonite, belongs to a tiny class called sednoid, a rare kind of trans-Neptunian object that stays far beyond Neptune. Its path does not line up with the three sednoids we already knew. That mismatch matters because it pressures ideas about …
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A team of astronomers has attempted to track the path of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS back into the past, tracing its path through the galaxy in simulations involving over 13 million stars. On July 1, astronomers spotted an unusual object speeding through the Solar System at nearly twice the velocity of previous interstellar visitors ‘Oumuamua and Comet Borisov. The object was …
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