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Keyword: 3iatlas

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  • Mysterious 'planet killer' hurtling towards us from distant part of the galaxy revealed

    07/22/2025 10:50:49 AM PDT · by DFG · 29 replies
    UK Daily Mail ^ | 07/22/2025 | Chris Melore
    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...
  • 7 Big Mysteries about Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS

    07/18/2025 6:23:57 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 14 replies
    Scientific American ^ | July 17, 2025 | Jonathan O'Callaghan
    Scientists are racing to learn as much as possible about the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS before it fades from view forever The interstellar object 3I/ATLAS appears as a blurry, dust-shrouded dot in this image from the Gemini North telescope. Future observations should reveal much more about this mysterious object, the third known visitor from beyond our solar system. International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/K. Meech (IfA/U. Hawaii) Image Processing: Jen Miller & Mahdi Zamani (NSF NOIRLab) (CC BY 4.0) ================================================================= Earlier this month astronomers were thrilled to discover only the third known interstellar object ever seen in our solar system. Now dubbed 3I/ATLAS, the...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

    07/07/2025 11:54:05 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 12 replies
    NASA ^ | 7 Jul, 2025 | Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech
    Explanation: It came from outer space. An object from outside our Solar System is now passing through at high speed. Classified as a comet because of its gaseous coma, 3I/ATLAS is only the third identified macroscopic object as being so alien. The comet's trajectory is shown in white on the featured map, where the orbits of Jupiter, Mars, and Earth are shown in gold, red, and blue. Currently Comet 3I/ATLAS is about the distance of Jupiter from the Sun -- but closing, with its closest approach to our Sun expected to be within the orbit of Mars in late October....
  • Gemini North Telescope Captures New Images of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

    07/17/2025 11:06:09 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 13 replies
    SCI News ^ | July 16, 2025 | Staff
    Astronomers using the Gemini North telescope at NSF’s International Gemini Observatory have captured 3I/ATLAS as it makes its temporary passage through our cosmic neighborhood ============================================================== This image from the Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS-N) at the Gemini North telescope shows the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / K. Meech, IfA & U. Hawaii / Jen Miller & Mahdi Zamani, NOIRLab. Interstellar objects are objects that originate outside of, and are observed passing through, our Solar System. Ranging from tens of meters to a few kilometers in size, these objects are pieces of cosmic...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - 3I/ATLAS

    07/17/2025 12:24:19 PM PDT · by MtnClimber · 5 replies
    NASA ^ | 17 Jul, 2025 | Image Credit: Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/K. Meech (IfA/U. Hawaii) Processing: Jen Miller, M
    Explanation: Discovered on July 1 with the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert, System) survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, 3I/ATLAS is so designated as the third known interstellar object to pass through our Solar System It follows 1I/ʻOumuamua in 2017 and the comet 2I/Borisov in 2019. Also known as C/2025 N1, 3I/ATLAS is clearly a comet, its diffuse cometary coma, a cloud of gas and dust surrounding an icy nucleus, is easily seen in these images from the large Gemini North telescope on Maunakea, Hawai‘i. The left panel tracks the comet as it moves across the sky against fixed...
  • It’s official! An interstellar object is visiting our solar system

    07/03/2025 5:26:55 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 54 replies
    EarthSky dot org ^ | July 2, 2025 | Kelly Kizer Whitt
    For only the 3rd time in history, astronomers have found an interstellar object hurtling through our solar system...The Minor Planet Center (MPC) confirmed its new designation on July 2, 2025, as 3I/ATLAS, or C/2025 N1. The MPC also said:There are tentative reports of cometary activity … with a marginal coma and a short 3-arcsecond tail....We are currently being visited by what appears to be a comet from another solar system...We only know of two other interstellar objects that have entered into our solar system before, 'Oumuamua and Comet 2I/Borisov. The nature of 'Oumuamua is still a matter of debate, and...
  • NASA spots a new comet flying in from a distant star system

    07/03/2025 10:42:31 AM PDT · by BenLurkin · 33 replies
    NPR ^ | July 3, 20251:15 PM ET | Nell Greenfieldboyce
    Astronomers have spotted a new comet, moving on a trajectory that indicates that it whizzed into our solar system from interstellar space and is just passing through. It's only the third time scientists have discovered this kind of visitor from outside our solar system. The first two, 'Oumuamua and Comet Borisov, intrigued astronomers because of the chance to observe pieces from another star system beyond our own. "This is like our chance to randomly sample what's going on in the rest of the galaxy," University of Oxford astrophysicist Chris Lintott recently told NPR, saying he and most other researchers really...