Only the third known interstellar comet we've found. Amazing that we could determine that it's interstellar to begin with. I wanted to know more and found some other articles with good details:...
Only the third known interstellar comet we've found. Amazing that we could determine that it's interstellar to begin with. I wanted to know more and found some other articles with good details:
Determining that an object is interstellar is probably the easiest thing astronomers found about 3i/Atlas. I'm simplifying a bit, but when astronomers see something that moves in the sky (compared...
Determining that an object is interstellar is probably the easiest thing astronomers found about 3i/Atlas. I'm simplifying a bit, but when astronomers see something that moves in the sky (compared to distant stars), they will try to figure out its orbit. In theory, with only 3 observations, you alreasy have enough data to figure out the obital parameters of the object you're observing, which will tell you if the object is interstellar or not (i.e. whether it follows a normal circular/elliptic trajectory or if it follows a hyperbolic trajectory).
There are multiple telescopes whose main purpose is to regularly scan the night sky to find asteroids and they have been very successful. We have now identified more than 1 million asteroids in our solar system. Given how much better we're becoming at finding previously unknown asteroids, I would expect that we will find interstellar objects more and more frequently.
I'm really impressed they've managed to take a picture that's worth publishing and not some graphs about statistics. Just a bare 'bleep on the radar' that could be confirmed as the comet would...
The images successfully captured a bright dot of the comet moving among the more distant stars, an impressive achievement for a camera that “is designed to observe Mars,” said Nicolas Thomas, a professor of experimental physics at the University of Bern in Switzerland and the principal investigator for the instrument.
Typically, the orbiter, which has studied Mars since 2016, points its camera downward at the surface 250 miles below, snapping about three pictures a second with an exposure time of about 1.5 milliseconds, Dr. Thomas said. Here, it was aimed at a dot nearly 20 million miles away, with five-second exposures, trying to make out something that was between 1/10,000th and 1/100,000th as bright as its usual observations.
I'm really impressed they've managed to take a picture that's worth publishing and not some graphs about statistics. Just a bare 'bleep on the radar' that could be confirmed as the comet would have been impressive on its own.
Also, between these objects and exoplanet discoveries I do love how we're slowly learning more about the space outside of our solar system. It's a very exciting time to be alive in a good way for that.
Only the third known interstellar comet we've found. Amazing that we could determine that it's interstellar to begin with. I wanted to know more and found some other articles with good details:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/oct/08/a-rare-comet-from-beyond-our-solar-system-is-being-closely-tracked-what-can-it-teach-us
https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/3i-atlas/comet-3i-atlas-multimedia/ (many more images)
Determining that an object is interstellar is probably the easiest thing astronomers found about 3i/Atlas. I'm simplifying a bit, but when astronomers see something that moves in the sky (compared to distant stars), they will try to figure out its orbit. In theory, with only 3 observations, you alreasy have enough data to figure out the obital parameters of the object you're observing, which will tell you if the object is interstellar or not (i.e. whether it follows a normal circular/elliptic trajectory or if it follows a hyperbolic trajectory).
There are multiple telescopes whose main purpose is to regularly scan the night sky to find asteroids and they have been very successful. We have now identified more than 1 million asteroids in our solar system. Given how much better we're becoming at finding previously unknown asteroids, I would expect that we will find interstellar objects more and more frequently.
I'm really impressed they've managed to take a picture that's worth publishing and not some graphs about statistics. Just a bare 'bleep on the radar' that could be confirmed as the comet would have been impressive on its own.
Also, between these objects and exoplanet discoveries I do love how we're slowly learning more about the space outside of our solar system. It's a very exciting time to be alive in a good way for that.