Alpha Centauri 2

Community => Recreation Commons => Destination: Alpha Centauri => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on November 19, 2025, 10:56:40 pm

Title: NASA unveils new close-up images of massive comet from outside solar system
Post by: Buster's Uncle on November 19, 2025, 10:56:40 pm

ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/)
NASA unveils new close-up images of massive comet from outside solar system
MATTHEW GLASSER
Wed, November 19, 2025 at 5:28 PM EST
6 min read


(https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/EcLOrGVnRGgH9oDS60.Fzg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTI0MDA7aD0xMzU0O2NmPXdlYnA-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/us.abcnews.go.com/f182f9370b68bbb2c8516fb20417ea0c)
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona - PHOTO: The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of insterstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on Oct. 2, 2025.


It's possibly as big as Manhattan, likely older than our own solar system and it's traveling through space at speeds of up to 153,000 miles per hour. It's also only the third confirmed interstellar object and the second comet from outside our solar system to be identified by humans. And now, NASA is sharing a new look at the comet that has captivated the world: 3I/ATLAS.

On Wednesday, during a press conference at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the space agency shared new images of the comet captured by the space agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera and its MAVEN Mars orbiter instruments in early October, when 3I/ATLAS flew past Mars at distances of 18.6 and 35 million miles. NASA also released an image captured by the European Space Agency and NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory in mid-October.

"I would like to address the rumors right at the beginning. I think it's important that we talk about that. This object is a comet. It looks and behaves like a comet, and all evidence points to it being a comet. But this one came from outside the solar system, which makes it fascinating, exciting and scientifically very important," said NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya.

The comet was first discovered on July 1 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System observatory, which is why it's called 3I/ATLAS. The 3I signifies that it is the third interstellar object discovered by astronomers. Later that month, data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope helped determine its potential size, suggesting it's between 1,400 feet and 3.5 miles. In early August, the James Webb Space Telescope revealed that the comet's coma, a cloud of gas and dust surrounding its nucleus, was primarily composed of carbon dioxide, along with water and ice.


(https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/T_SoE3ec3UHZyeryVAb4RA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MjtjZj13ZWJw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/us.abcnews.go.com/ba122ccaa17323e048dd258f20e2151b)
NASA/Goddard/LASP/CU Boulder - PHOTO: This ultraviolet image shows the halo of gas and dust, or coma, surrounding comet 3I/ATLAS as seen on Oct. 9, 2025, by NASA's MAVEN spacecraft using its Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph.


In a preprint study analyzing the findings (https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fzenodo.org%2Frecords%2F16941949%3Ftoken%3DeyJhbGciOiJIUzUxMiJ9.eyJpZCI6IjJlMzIzZWNlLTE2NmMtNDVlYi1hNjQ1LWY0NWYzNjNkOTQwNyIsImRhdGEiOnt9LCJyYW5kb20iOiJkOGEyYjcxNmQ0NjFhZmM5MGRlMWM3NjU2NTY4Nzg3MiJ9.ydkIUd_88sI0zsbhRzfUBANVpxZt1dRH7alRn-bhh4EAd8R07WGFzTW6yGkQgdOyKr_1vz1dzOe8zNsr4bK04A&data=05%7C02%7CLeah.Sarnoff%40abc.com%7C085f41c767194dc7c91408de27b47e03%7C56b731a8a2ac4c32bf6b616810e913c6%7C1%7C0%7C638991853375884076%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=eRgv8MyX%2FNMWOphfT4APLxrlj6cpce5owO5cS1msb3g%3D&reserved=0), researchers explained that the comet's composition is unusual compared to comets in our solar system and that the CO2-to-water ratio for 3I/ATLAS "has never before been observed in a comet" so far from the Sun and among the highest ever observed in any comet. They theorize that their findings could indicate that the comet was exposed to more intense radiation or formed in a region of space rich in carbon dioxide ice.

"We were quick to be able to say, yep, it definitely behaves like a comet. We certainly haven't seen any technical signatures or anything from it that would lead us to believe it was anything other than a comet. But the super cool thing is not that it's exactly like all the comets that we see in our solar system. It's the differences that are so tantalizing," said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

"It's gonna look different because it didn't come from our solar system, and that's what makes it so magical," she added.

According to NASA, the comet passed closest to the Sun on Oct. 30, at a distance of 130 million miles, and will be closest to Earth on Dec. 19, when it is approximately 170 million miles away. The agency says "3I/ATLAS is on what's called a hyperbolic trajectory, which means it is moving too fast to be bound by the Sun's gravity and, therefore, is not following a closed orbital path around the Sun. It is simply passing through our solar system.”

"I think of these as frozen fossils from their moments of formation, including the things in and from now beyond our solar system," said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of NASA's Astrophysics Division. "What this will let us do is tell that story in a broader context between the detailed and large library of data we have on those origins of our own solar system and how volatiles were delivered to make life possible here on Earth.”


(https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/.6NtSvjede9_YbgIZIMgPA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTUzOTtjZj13ZWJw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/us.abcnews.go.com/99b8dac9f25ff811c3c59637ccec739c)
NASA/Lowell Observatory/Qicheng Zhang - PHOTO: This screen grab from a video shows the 3I/ATLAS interstellar comet as a bright, fuzzy orb in the center.


For months, there has been speculation that the object could be of alien origin, a theory that took off on social media and has been championed by Harvard professor of science Avi Loeb, who has written extensively about 3I/ATLAS on his blog.

Loeb identified "12 anomalies" for 3I/ATLAS that he says make it unique compared to other comets, including its unusual trajectory that takes it past multiple planets in our solar system, a nucleus much larger than those of previous interstellar comets and the non-traditional physical and chemical makeup of the gas plume.

"Through my communications about 3I/ATLAS, I convey the notion that science is work in progress. Anomalies offer a multitude of interpretations that are tested by new data that can rule out all but one of them," Loeb wrote in a blog post.

He added that "Remarkably, interstellar objects offer a new opportunity for both the search for primitive and technological lifeforms.”

"If you understand comets pretty well and you understand asteroids pretty well, you kind of know the signatures that you're looking for, and so you can sort of look for these quickly and check them off and say, yep, it really does behave like a comet," said Fox.

NASA says all the collected data will be made available to the public, and the findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals after the data and images are scrutinized and studied.

"What we're going to find; It's way too early to predict. But I think we're getting a hint of the breadth, the wide spectrum of conditions that existed in different parts of the galaxy, in different solar systems," explained Tom Statler, lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASA. "The answers will come later on."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/nasa-unveils-close-images-massive-222827249.html