Interstellar Comet 3i / Atlas on Wednesday reached its closest point to the sun, the point known as Perihelion. Although this cosmic visitor has not been visible from Earth since September, our local preferences have been able to follow it on its way to our problem, witnessing it as it grows as it grows as it grows.
As the comet approaches the Sun, the heat from the stars has caused the comet’s cold environment to rapidly change from solid to gas—so much so that it passes through the liquid phase. The resulting gas surrounds the comet’s nuclei in a bright, luminous cloud called a coma, forming a visible tail.
Interstellar Comets like 3I / ATLAS offer extraordinary opportunities to study other solar systems, briefly illuminating the far reaches of our galaxy. Astronomers are very interested in studying a comet at perihelion because gases and dust from its nucleus can reveal its composition.
The discovery of NASA and the European Space Agency Agency’s Stereo-a and NASA’s satellites, can help illuminate new information about this interstellar object only in the third part of its kind that has ever been seen. The observations are described in a new study by scientists Qucheng Zhang of Lowell Observatory and Karl Battams of the US Naval Research Laboratory, and posted on the Preprint Server ARCIV on Wednesday.
3I/last shoulder atlas (for now)
Scientists discovered that, at Perihelion, 3i / Atlas shines at a ratio of 9 – bright enough that if it were Earth’s orbit, it would be visible using a telescope.
Zhang and Battams also found that 3i/atlas appeared “clearer than the sun,” a color consistent with gas emissions that contribute to the comet’s apparent brightness near perihelion.
It is interesting that the 3i / atlas light up much faster than the most common category of clouds from the Oort Cloud, which is owned by KUiper at KUIPT in a high-quality external solar system – although no one has seen it directly.
In their paper, Batams and Zhang speculate why 3i/atlas light up so quickly. It is possible that what is “strange” in its nucleus structures, such as composition, composition, or structure, can be behind it. A comet could have found these strange objects in its own star system or during its long interstellar journey to ours, they send each other.
The show isn’t over yet
This interstellar traveler is now traveling far from the inner solar system. Astronomers expect 3i / Atlas to make a slow return to Earth’s orbit in late November or early December, before making its closest approach to our planet around December 19.
From that point on, 3i / Atlas will gradually fade from view as it continues its journey away from our solar system. But spacecraft can continue to provide new insights. It is possible that NASA’s Psyche Psyche of the asteroid of the same name, or the lucy mission to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, may look at the comet again, giving us more clues to its origin and makeup.
Scientists have discovered that 3i / Atlas is a very unusual object, with one of the highest carbon dioxide in water concentrations ever observed in any comet. It’s likely that this cosmic encounter will continue to surprise as researchers sift through perihelion data.
