Latest news with #interstellarobject
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
Scientists give chilling update on the mysterious 'interstellar object' racing through our solar system – as they warn it's even BIGGER than we thought
It was first discovered on July 1, sparking fears of an alien invasion. Now, scientists have provided a chilling update on the mysterious 'interstellar object' racing through our solar system. Using data from the Vera C Rubin Observatory, experts have revealed just how big the object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, really is. According to their analysis, the object measures roughly seven miles (11.2km) in diameter. That's even bigger than Mount Everest – making 3I/ATLAS the largest interstellar object ever spotted. Professor Avi Loeb, a theoretical physicist and cosmologist from Harvard University, has suggested that the object could be an alien spacecraft. However, not everyone is so convinced. Chris Lintott, an astronomer at the University of Oxford, told Live Science: 'Any suggestion that it's artificial is nonsense on stilts, and is an insult to the exciting work going on to understand this object.' The images of the comet were actually snapped by Vera C Rubin before it was officially discovered. However, since it was identified on July 1, scientists have scoured back through the data to find out more about the mysterious object. In a new study, published on arXiv, more than 200 researchers have confirmed the likely size of the comet's main body, known as its nucleus. Their analysis suggests that the nucleus has a radius of around 3.5 miles (5.6km). That translates to a diameter – or width – of about seven miles (11.2km). To put that into perspective, that's even bigger than Mount Everest (5.4 miles), and almost twice the size of Mount Kilimanjaro (3.6 miles)! That makes 3I/ATLAS the largest of the three confirmed interstellar objects discovered to date. For comparison, 'Oumuamua, which was discovered in 2017, was believed to be around 0.2 miles (0.4km) wide, while Comet Borisov, discovered in 2019, was roughly 0.6 miles (1km) wide. Beyond size, the researchers were also able to ascertain details on 3I/ATLAS's coma – the cloud of ice, dust and gas surrounding it. Based on the images, the researchers predict that the comet has large amounts of dust and ice in the coma. For alien hunters, this will likely come as disappointing news. This composition suggests that 3I/ATLAS is likely a natural comet, and not an alien probe. Previously speaking to MailOnline, Professor Loeb pointed to 3I/ATLAS's impressive speed of 130,000mph as an indication that it might be controlled by aliens. 'It is difficult to imagine a natural process that would favour a plunge towards the inner solar system at 60 kilometres per second,' he said. 'An alternative is that the object targets the inner solar system by some technological design.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Hubble Snaps Photos of Interstellar Invader
The Hubble Space Telescope has snapped some spooky looking photos of our solar system's newest interstellar invader on the run. The object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, was first spotted careening through the outer limits of the Sun's domain earlier this month, and appears to be a comet. Upon closer inspection, its speed was found to be so incredible that there could be no doubt of its extrasolar origins, making it only the third detected interstellar object in history. Tantalizingly, it's hurtling straight towards our system's center, giving astronomers ample time to study this cosmic interloper which may have come from the center of our galaxy — and thus, may be older than our entire solar system. And the Hubble just gave us a glimpse of what it looks like. An amateur astronomer who goes by the handle astrafoxen on Bluesky edited the images together and uploaded them as two short little timelapses, giving us an idea of its blazing speed. Relative to the Sun, 3I/ATLAS clocked in at about 137,000 miles per hour when it was first spotted, and it's only getting faster. The images within each set, it's worth noting, were taken just minutes apart on Monday. "Plenty of cosmic rays peppering the images, but the comet's coma looks very nice and puffy," astrafoxen wrote. Before 3I/ATLAS, the only known interstellar objects were 'Oumuamua, which was spotted in 2017 and famed for its cigar shape, and two years later Borisov, a comet that broke apart into massive chunks. Both have since veered back out into interstellar space. Much of 3I/ATLAS's fascinating nature remains uncertain, including how large it is. Being a suspected comet, it's surrounded by a luminous halo of gas and dust called a coma, which shrouds the solid object at its center. The coma can form a tail hundreds of thousands of miles long. Based on its speed and trajectory, though, 3I/ATLAS appears to have come from the galactic center, perhaps forming around another star before being booted out by a passing one. Some astronomers have speculated that ATLAS could be between three to 11 billion years old; it would need such a staggering timescale, they argue, to build up to the tremendous speed it's now exhibiting. The good news is that we caught sight of the comet pretty early on in its visit — 'Oumuamua practically had one foot out the door when it was detected — and it's still traveling towards the solar system's center. It's anticipated to reach perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, around October 30, at a distance of about 130 million miles. That buys us plenty of time to get a closer look at this thing and answer our most burning questions, including where in the Milky Way did it form — and, more luridly, whether it could possibly be an alien spacecraft. More on space: Scientists Say That Uranus Appears to Have a Girlfriend Solve the daily Crossword
Daily Mail
7 days ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
Interstellar object hurtling through our solar system may bring life from distant world
Earth's famous Hubble Telescope has just revealed the first images of a mysterious interstellar object racing through our solar system. Spotted on Monday, Hubble has helped astronomers confirm that the massive, high-speed visitor is a comet from a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy. First spotted in late June, the comet named 3I/ATLAS has been on an 800-million-year journey to reach this solar system. The new images from Hubble captured what appears to be an icy tail that's ejecting rocky material from its 12-mile-long core. Those observations were reinforced by a new study published Tuesday morning which revealed 3I/ATLAS has water ice present in its coma, the luminous cloud of gas and dust surrounding a comet's nucleus. That revelation about 3I/ATLAS also confirmed that life-giving water exists far beyond our solar system, carried by comets throughout the cosmos, and potentially spreading the building blocks of life to other worlds. The giant comet has become the third interstellar object recorded by astronomers entering the solar system, joining Oumuamua in 2017 and the comet Borisov in 2019. It will make its closest pass to Earth on December 17 as it speeds through the solar system at 41 miles per second (roughly 150,000 miles per hour). The new study published on the pre-print server arXiv, also revealed that the comet's coma is made up of 30 percent water ice and 70 percent of a dust similar to a type of meteorite (Tagish Lake) that contains organic materials. While the study didn't detect organic molecules directly, the reddish dust in 3I/ATLAS resembles D-type asteroids, which are known to sometimes carry simple organic compounds like amino acids or hydrocarbons. These are the kinds of molecules that could, under the right conditions, contribute to the chemistry needed for life on a distant planet. Since 3I/ATLAS is an interstellar object - meaning it has traveled between star systems - it could theoretically visit other planetary systems. If it collided with a planet or released its material into a planet's atmosphere, it might deposit water and possibly organic molecules on those worlds. This process, called panspermia, is the idea that life's building blocks (or even simple life forms) could be transferred between worlds by objects like comets or asteroids. Here on Earth, a 2022 study published in Nature Communications found the five building blocks for DNA and RNA in several carbon-rich meteorites discovered around the world. Scientists have said this and similar discoveries support the theory that the origins of life on Earth were delivered by meteorites and other cosmic bodies like 3I/ATLAS billions of years ago. The comet is by far the biggest known interstellar visitor to pass through the solar system. At 12 miles long, it dwarfs Oumuamua, which was only about 300 to 1,300 feet long, and Borisov's core, which was about half a mile in diameter. Scientists don't believe 3I/ATLAS poses any threat to Earth. That's good news because the object would fall into the category of a 'planet killer' - likely causing an extinction-level event if it struck the Earth. On its current trajectory, it'll come within 2.4 astronomical units of the planet (223 million miles) in mid-December. An astronomical unit (AU) is equal to the distance between Earth and the sun, 93 million miles. Technically, the comet has already entered the solar system, and was less than four AU away from Earth after its discovery in early July. In October, the object from outside the solar system is expected to make its closest pass to a planet, coming within 0.4 AU (37 million miles) of Mars. To reach these findings, scientists took optical spectra (light measurements in the visible range) to see the colors in the comet's dust. Astronomers then used the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility to measure near-infrared light, which helped detect materials like water ice. The presence of water ice also hints that 3I/ATLAS formed in a cold, distant part of its original solar system, providing a clue about its origins and showing similarities to comets in our solar system. Harvard physicist Avi Loeb and student researcher Shokhruz Kakharov previously traced the path of the interstellar object to a thicker part of the Milky Way galaxy's disk, where older stars are found. They have estimated that 3I/ATLAS is older than our sun, which is 4.6 billion years old.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers capture image of new comet 3I/ATLAS
Astronomers in Hawaii have identified a new 'interstellar object' they are calling 3I/ATLAS. The comet passed earth on July 1. Karen Meech, who led the team that discovered 3I/ATLAS, says it could help scientists with information on other solar systems.
CBC
18-07-2025
- Science
- CBC
Astronomers capture image of new comet 3I/ATLAS
Astronomers in Hawaii have identified a new 'interstellar object' they are calling 3I/ATLAS. The comet passed earth on July 1. Karen Meech, who led the team that discovered 3I/ATLAS, says it could help scientists with information on other solar systems.
