{"id":230437,"date":"2025-12-13T06:09:48","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T06:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/230437\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T06:09:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T06:09:48","slug":"an-interstellar-traveler-is-getting-closer-to-earth-than-ever-before-how-to-observe-comet-3i-atlas-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/230437\/","title":{"rendered":"An interstellar traveler is getting closer to Earth than ever before: How to observe comet 3I\/ATLAS | Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ancient visitor, forged in another corner of the universe, is preparing to approach Earth. It goes by the name of comet 3I\/ATLAS, and was discovered five months ago by the ATLAS telescope network in R\u00edo Hurtado, Chile<\/a>. Classified as the third interstellar visitor to cross our skies<\/a>, it follows the asteroid Oumuamua in 2017 and the bright comet Borisov in 2019. On December 19, this wandering celestial body will be 270 million kilometers (168 million miles) from our planet \u2014 almost twice as far away as the Sun.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a distance that seems unbridgeable to humans, but it is considered close for an object from another star system. As it passes through our solar system, its presence offers the international scientific community the chance to analyze its composition, giving us a glimpse of conditions in other corners of the galaxy. <\/p>\n

C\u00e9sar Gonz\u00e1lez, a spokesman at the Madrid Planetarium, explains that 3I\/ATLAS differs physically from other comets. \u201cA higher volume of gases, mostly carbon dioxide, has been discovered in the coma [cloud of gas and dust]. A greater amount of ionized nickel has also been observed, a material that had not been seen in other comets,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

The unusual structure of the 3I\/ATLAS\u2019 coma and the chemical composition detected so far could be explained by the combination of a high metal content and abundant water ice. \u201cThis does not mean that we do not detect dioxide or carbon monoxide ice in our own comets, but that the relative proportion of these ices is different,\u201d says astronomer Julia de Le\u00f3n, from the Canaries\u2019 Astrophysics Institute. <\/p>\n

Due to its peculiar characteristics, social networks have been abuzz with speculation that it is a technological alien. It is a hypothesis explored by Avi Loeb, a Harvard physicist. NASA dismissed the idea, however, after examining the photos and signals captured by its probes. \u201cThese theories generate unnecessary noise and detract from the real scientific interest of these objects, which are already very interesting in themselves,\u201d says De Le\u00f3n. <\/p>\n

Gas eruptions on the surface<\/p>\n

Josep Mar\u00eda Trigo, a researcher at the Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC), has led a recent study published on Cornell University\u2019s ArXiv platform, in which he describes how the comet emitted jets of gas and dust particles during its perihelion \u2014 the point in its orbit when it is closest to the Sun. This point occurred on October 29 and was detected by the Joan Or\u00f3 Telescope of the Montsec observatory. The phenomenon happens because the internal heat of the object melts the ice, giving rise to eruptions that expel gas, steam and dust into space. \u201cThis is a transitional object, halfway between a comet and an asteroid; it is extremely pristine. Our study spectroscopically confirms that its characteristics are compatible with the objects we call trans-Neptunian <\/a>[beyond the orbit of Neptune],\u201d says Trigo.<\/p>\n

Another independent research team led by scientist Nathan X. Roth has worked out of the ALMA observatory, also based in Chile, and detected the most enriched concentrations of methanol and hydrogen cyanide of any comet, second only to C\/2016 R2 (PanSTARRS). <\/p>\n

According to Trigo, objects like 3I\/ATLAS have great astrobiological potential: they could act as receptacles of organic matter and catalytic minerals, capable of generating precursor ingredients for life if they find a suitable environment. \u201cBut careful! That does not mean they contain life,\u201d Trigo warns. <\/p>\n

How should we observe the comet? <\/p>\n

The comet will pass close to Earth, but unlike on other occasions, it will not be visible to the naked eye. C\u00e9sar Gonz\u00e1lez and Julia de Le\u00f3n agree that the best time to observe it will be at 12 midnight from December 18 and 19 in mainland Spain. \u201cIt will reach its highest position in the sky at six in the morning,\u201d says Gonz\u00e1lez.<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez recommends using a telescope or binoculars with a 50 mm aperture to be able to distinguish it as a \u201cpoint of light.\u201d Rural areas with minimal light pollution are ideal for appreciating this phenomenon. In any case, Gonz\u00e1lez insists that the significance of this comet lies in the fact that it was forged in a foreign solar system. \u201cIt is a good time to verify whether the theories we have developed observing the creation of our solar system are valid for other systems and other stars,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ancient visitor, forged in another corner of the universe, is preparing to approach Earth. It goes by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[460,18,7446,19,17,1024,133,451],"class_list":{"0":"post-230437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-csic","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-hubble","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-nasa","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-space"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115710776017802955","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}