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NASA Issues Chilling Update On Mysterious Interstellar Object As Hubble Reveals Its Size
A terrifying update on the enigmatic “interstellar object” speeding through our solar system has been released by NASA.
Known as 3I/ATLAS, the visitor from another star was initially observed on July 1 at a distance of 420 million miles from the sun.
As 3I/ATLAS moves deeper into the inner solar system, the Hubble Space Telescope has now taken the finest photographs of the spacecraft to yet.
These ground-breaking photos show that 3I/ATLAS is the fastest interstellar object ever discovered, traveling at an incredible 130,000 miles per hour (209,000 km/h).
The size of the object’s icy core has also been recalculated by scientists using Hubble’s data.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory scientists previously calculated the extraterrestrial comet’s diameter to be about seven miles (11.2 km).
As of right now, we know that 3I/ATLAS is as small as 1,000 feet (320 meters) and no wider than 3.5 miles (5.6 km).
That would still make 3I/ATLAS up to 14 times larger than the second-biggest interstellar object ever discovered.
The object 3I/ATLAS is now almost definitely a comet rather than a solid rock, according to scientists and space organizations worldwide.
This indicates that it is a comparatively little mass of ice, frozen gasses, and dust that is encircled by a huge cloud of evaporating material that intensifies as it gets closer to the sun’s heat.
Scientists use the amount of light that an object reflects to determine its size when it is very far away.
At first, though, astronomers were unsure if 3I/ATLAS was a small, highly reflecting comet encircled by dazzling gasses or a very huge, boring space rock.
We can now observe a frozen comet’s distinctive light and determine its actual size with the help of Hubble’s observations.
A dust plume can be seen streaming from the comet’s sun-warmed side in the image captured by Hubble, along with the faint outline of a tail visible behind it.
Scientists have found similar amounts of dust loss in comets about 300 million kilometers from the sun.
The tail and dust plumes should also become more noticeable when 3I/ATLAS approaches the sun and warms even more.
It will pass barely inside the orbit of Mars in late October, when it will be 130 million miles (210 million km) from the sun.
Fortunately, the object will be on the other side of the sun during this close encounter and does not represent any threat to Earth.
Astronomers are trying hard to collect as much information as they can while the item is still in the area because this is only the third occasion they have been able to detect an object approaching from another star system.
Science team leader for the Hubble observations, Dr David Jewitt, of the University of California, says: “No one knows where the comet came from. It’s like glimpsing a rifle bullet for a thousandth of a second.”
“You can’t project that back with any accuracy to figure out where it started on its path.”
The fact that 3I/ATLAS is moving so quickly in relation to the sun further supports the theory that it has been moving through space for many billions of years.
The ‘gravitational slingshot effect’ increased the comet’s momentum as it passed nebulae, planets, and stars.
An object will become quicker the longer it drifts through space.
According to earlier research, 3I/ATLAS is the oldest comet ever observed, with an estimated age of at least eight billion years.
This suggests that the comet may be twice as old as our solar system, which is 4.6 billion years old.
Only two other interstellar objects are followed by 3I/ATLAS: 2I/Borisov in 2019 and 1I/’Oumuamua, which was found in 2017.
But according to scientists, new developments in telescope technology will soon let us to see more extrastellar guests.
Dr Jewitt says, “This latest interstellar tourist is one of a previously undetected population of objects bursting onto the scene that will gradually emerge.”
“This is now possible because we have powerful sky survey capabilities that we didn’t have before. We’ve crossed a threshold.”
The James Webb Space Telescope, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory are all slated to perform observations of 3I/ATLAS’ trip through our star neighborhood, making Hubble the first potent space telescope in line to do so.
After passing too close to the Sun to be observed, 3I/ATLAS should be visible to ground-based telescopes until September. By early December, it should resurface on the other side of the Sun.
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