NASA Releases New Images of Interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas

On November 19, NASA unveiled new images of Comet 3I/Atlas, an interstellar object estimated to be billions of years old. Data came from multiple missions, including Perseverance, MAVEN, Psyche, Lucy, and the solar-studying PUNCH mission.

Discovery of Comet 3I/Atlas:

• First detected on July 1 by the ATLAS survey telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile.
• It is only the third interstellar object discovered to date, after:
  • 1I/ʻOumuamua (2017)
  • 2I/Borisov (2019)

What Are Interstellar Objects?

• Celestial bodies that originate outside our Solar System.
• They are not gravitationally bound to any star.
• Formed in distant planetary systems and ejected into interstellar space due to collisions or gravitational slingshot effects.

How Scientists Confirm Interstellar Origin:

• By analysing an object’s trajectory.
• Solar System objects follow closed elliptical orbits with a perihelion (closest point to the Sun) and aphelion (farthest point).
• Interstellar objects move in open hyperbolic orbits:
  • They have a perihelion, but no aphelion.
  • They travel so fast that the Sun’s gravity cannot slow them during their outbound journey, allowing them to escape the Solar System.

Source: IE