First good image released of interstellar object 3I/Atlas as it plunges through the solar system
Click for original image of 3I/Atlas.
Astronomers using the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii have obtained the first good image of the interstellar object 3I/Atlas, as it plunges within the orbit of Jupiter on its way through the solar system.
That picture is to the right, cropped to post here and overlaid on top of a map showing the interstellar object’s calculated path through the solar system.
The picture clearly shows this is a comet, with central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of dust and gas. The data also suggests its nucleus has a diameter of about twelve miles. That it resembles a comet also suggests it is a dirty snowball, made up of ice and rocky material mixed together.
Because it will never get closer to the Sun then just inside the orbit of Mars, it is not likely it will ever get bright enough for naked eye observations. At the same time, it is large enough and will be close enough to make possible some excellent observations as it zips by and leaves the solar system sometime in the fall. The previous two identified interstellar objects, Oumuamua and Comet 21/Borisov, were either too small or too far away as they flew past to get this kind of good data.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for original image of 3I/Atlas.
Astronomers using the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii have obtained the first good image of the interstellar object 3I/Atlas, as it plunges within the orbit of Jupiter on its way through the solar system.
That picture is to the right, cropped to post here and overlaid on top of a map showing the interstellar object’s calculated path through the solar system.
The picture clearly shows this is a comet, with central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of dust and gas. The data also suggests its nucleus has a diameter of about twelve miles. That it resembles a comet also suggests it is a dirty snowball, made up of ice and rocky material mixed together.
Because it will never get closer to the Sun then just inside the orbit of Mars, it is not likely it will ever get bright enough for naked eye observations. At the same time, it is large enough and will be close enough to make possible some excellent observations as it zips by and leaves the solar system sometime in the fall. The previous two identified interstellar objects, Oumuamua and Comet 21/Borisov, were either too small or too far away as they flew past to get this kind of good data.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Avi Loeb’s book on Oumuamua said that his team calculated that star systems needed to be throwing off thousands of these kinds of objects just to have a chance that we would see one in our lifetime. The book also said that Oumuamua was traveling at a low velocity with respect to the Local Standard of Rest (LSR).
Avi *might* have a point with that one.
Still, the long, unbroken contrail of 1972’s Great Daylight Fireball is what gnaws at me the most–right there with Miranda looking as if it had been strip-mined.
Halton Arp had some ideas of debris out from around black holes having unusual chemistry.
Louis Frank used to think there were far more comets inbound.
I have yet to see the positions of asteroids and space probes plotted alongside this object ‘s trajectory.
I think the New Horizons guys need to scan ahead one last time using the latest astronomical assets, then work with the SOHO guys.
We have seen all kinds of comets slung back out of our system. If the Sun is a batter, NH is an outfielder–one so far out it might not take much to have it veer towards an outbound comet. It is far enough out to have time to gradually deviate towards the path of a comet provided it isn’t too far afield.
I just don’t think there is another Kuiper object ahead–so they need to look behind…then give the probe to the heliophysics guys.
Wow….it’s a long string of repeating blue, green, and red lights. Psychedelic, man.
Unless that’s supposed to be spectroscopy. In that case they forgot to tell us what elements were found, what are the the volatiles making up the coma.
If the colors represent emission lines, it looks like the usual comet-stuff.
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/articles/spectroscopy-101–types-of-spectra-and-spectroscopy
I thought Halton Arp discounted the existence of black holes, favoring a plasmoid model?
It might just be the case that there’s a lot more debris floating around out there than we thought — in our neighborhood of the Milky Way, at any rate.
It could also be that something big passed through our Oort Cloud not long ago (in astronomical terms), and knocked loose some stuff. We know that Scholz’s Star passed through the Oort Cloud just 70,000 years ago, after all.
(Yes, the present speculation is that this comet is not from our Oort Cloud but from outside our system. That is not definitive, But it is something to keep in mind.)
Borisov would not surprise me as coming in from the Oort.
This object ‘s great speed makes me think it truly is interstellar–but likely wrenched from its star system by a close shave there instead. It seems to be coming from coreward direction of the Milky Way, where there are more stars passing by on a frequent basis.
That having been said–there is an outside chance that it was perturbed 70,000 years ago. We just need to see if the trajectory lines up–but I can’t even get the guys from Centauri Dreams to show any asteroids or probes nearest this comet’s path.
One relied on the Gemini AI, but it said (when I asked about N20 explosives) that there were no all-nitrogen explosives–even after I asked it about N6, which is an all nitrogen explosive.
It might be that astronomers confuse the Gemini AI and the Gemini telescope.
Lastly–Oumuamua still stands out in my mind.
If not a spacecraft–then what would cause anomalous acceleration?
My two guesses.
1.) A shard from a volcanic plug (Ship Rock) or batholith. I have seen footage shot by climbers/hikers of differential heating to cause rocks to all but explode. This thing gets near the Sun and warms. It then becomes cold-soaked on the way out–and THEN spalls a bit of matter off.
But that might be a bit more likely if it is:
2.) A big sedimentary slab–like Vasquez Rocks where Star Trek and other features were shot :)
If that is the case–we could find fossils of extra-solar life wiped out by the destruction of its home planet!
That is what I believe it to be –and worth a good SLS ride even if the rocket costs 10 billion a shot.
We have a chance to do an extra-solar dig without going extra-solar distances.
I for one do not believe it to be a hydrogen blob.