{"id":445121,"date":"2025-12-13T21:30:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T21:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/445121\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T21:30:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T21:30:24","slug":"xmm-newton-offers-incredible-x-ray-view-of-interstellar-comet-3i-atlas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/445121\/","title":{"rendered":"XMM-Newton Offers Incredible X-ray View of Interstellar Comet 3I\/ATLAS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astronomers using ESA\u2019s XMM-Newton observatory have captured an X-ray image of 3I\/ATLAS<\/a>, the third confirmed interstellar object to be detected passing through the Solar System, following 1I\/\u02bbOumuamua and 2I\/Borisov.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"This<\/a><\/p>\n

This XMM-Newton image shows an X-ray view of the interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS. At the center of the image, a bright red spot stands out against a dark background, like a fiery beacon. Starting from this core, faint gradients of purple and blue spread outward, creating a slightly rotated rectangular frame, divided by a thin horizontal line, the detector gap. The red color shows low-energy X-rays, blue marks empty space with very few X-rays. Image credit: ESA \/ XMM-Newton \/ C. Lisse \/ S. Cabot \/ XMM ISO Team.<\/p>\n

On December 3, 2025, XMM-Newton observed the interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS for around 20 hours.<\/p>\n

During that time, the interstellar object was about 282-285 million km from the spacecraft.<\/p>\n

XMM-Newton observed the comet with its European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC)-PN camera, its most sensitive X-ray camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis XMM-Newton image shows the comet glowing in low-energy X-rays: blue marks empty space with very few X-rays, while red highlights the comet\u2019s X-ray glow,\u201d members of the XMM-Newton team said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The astronomers expected to see this glow because when gas molecules streaming from the comet collide with the solar wind, they produce X-rays.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese X-rays can come from the interaction of the solar wind with gases like water vapor, carbon dioxide, or carbon monoxide \u2014 which telescopes such as the NASA\/ESA\/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and NASA\u2019s SPHEREx have already detected,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they are uniquely sensitive to gases like hydrogen and nitrogen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are almost invisible to optical and ultraviolet instruments, such as the cameras on the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope or ESA\u2019s JUICE.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis makes X-ray observations a powerful tool,\u201d they noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey allow scientists to detect and study gases that other instruments can\u2019t easily spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral groups of scientists think that the first detected interstellar object, 1I\/\u2018Oumuamua, may have been made of exotic ice like nitrogen or hydrogen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile 1I\/\u2018Oumuamua is too far away now, 3I\/ATLAS presents a new opportunity to study an interstellar object, and observations in X-ray light will complement other observations to help scientists figure out what it is made of.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astronomers using ESA\u2019s XMM-Newton observatory have captured an X-ray image of 3I\/ATLAS, the third confirmed interstellar object to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":445122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[39035,38755,890,136365,29252,492,159,161,67,132,68,16165,205022],"class_list":{"0":"post-445121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-3i-atlas","9":"tag-comet","10":"tag-esa","11":"tag-interstellar-comet","12":"tag-interstellar-object","13":"tag-physics","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-solar-system","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-x-rays","20":"tag-xmm-newton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115714395101631163","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}