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Any updates on the 3I-Atlas?
The last I heard was that it was flying through the Asteroid Belt?
The last time it was talked about, we had an expert in the field sign up to comment on all the theories about the interstellar comet.
Does anyone have any further information, other than that it is headed to Earth and we are all going to die?? 
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/3i-atlas-is-turning-green-c8a4fd003abc
The transition from red to green-blue colors might be associated with the steep rise in the production of cyanide (CN) as reported by the Very Large Telescope on August 25, 2025 (here). The production of both cyanide and nickel without iron was found to increase dramatically with decreasing heliocentric distance to the power of about 9 (+/-1).
This morning, the ATLAS telescope team released data dating back to March 28, 2025 (accessible here), showing that the cross section of scattered light around 3I/ATLAS grew inversely with heliocentric distance to the power of 3.9 when the object was farther than 3.3 times the Earth-Sun separation (AU). Once 3I/ATLAS got closer, the growth was moderated to a power-law index of 1.2. The ATLAS team interprets this anomalous evolution as a shift from scattering of sunlight by dust lifted from a reddened surface to the production of small, optically bright icy grains, which changed the opacity of the plume of materials shed off by 3I/ATLAS.
The Hubble Space Telescope image of 3I/ATLAS from July 21, 2025 (reported here) when 3I/ATLAS was at a heliocentric distance of 3.8 AU, shows an extension of scattered light towards the Sun and not away from it — as typically for comets. The Webb Space Telescope data from August 6, 2025 (reported here) and the SPHEREx space observatory from August 8–12, 2025 (reported here) showed that the plume of gas around 3I/ATLAS is dominated by carbon dioxide — CO2 (87% by mass) with traces of carbon monoxide — CO (9%), and water — H2O (most of the remaining 4%). Combined with the path of 3I/ATLAS being aligned with the ecliptic plane of the planets around the Sun, having a chance probability of a fifth of a percent, these facts make 3I/ATLAS interestingly anomalous relative to familiar icy rocks. 3I/ATLAS is different from the first interstellar object 1I/`Oumuamua which displayed no signs of evaporation but exhibited non-gravitational acceleration and also from the second interstellar object 2I/Borisov which behaved like a familiar comet.
*******
https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/3i-atlas-gemini-south
Too many advert breaks to copy 4 paragraphs best read at link, although above covers most.
💫☄️
The transition from red to green-blue colors might be associated with the steep rise in the production of cyanide (CN) as reported by the Very Large Telescope on August 25, 2025 (here). The production of both cyanide and nickel without iron was found to increase dramatically with decreasing heliocentric distance to the power of about 9 (+/-1).
This morning, the ATLAS telescope team released data dating back to March 28, 2025 (accessible here), showing that the cross section of scattered light around 3I/ATLAS grew inversely with heliocentric distance to the power of 3.9 when the object was farther than 3.3 times the Earth-Sun separation (AU). Once 3I/ATLAS got closer, the growth was moderated to a power-law index of 1.2. The ATLAS team interprets this anomalous evolution as a shift from scattering of sunlight by dust lifted from a reddened surface to the production of small, optically bright icy grains, which changed the opacity of the plume of materials shed off by 3I/ATLAS.
The Hubble Space Telescope image of 3I/ATLAS from July 21, 2025 (reported here) when 3I/ATLAS was at a heliocentric distance of 3.8 AU, shows an extension of scattered light towards the Sun and not away from it — as typically for comets. The Webb Space Telescope data from August 6, 2025 (reported here) and the SPHEREx space observatory from August 8–12, 2025 (reported here) showed that the plume of gas around 3I/ATLAS is dominated by carbon dioxide — CO2 (87% by mass) with traces of carbon monoxide — CO (9%), and water — H2O (most of the remaining 4%). Combined with the path of 3I/ATLAS being aligned with the ecliptic plane of the planets around the Sun, having a chance probability of a fifth of a percent, these facts make 3I/ATLAS interestingly anomalous relative to familiar icy rocks. 3I/ATLAS is different from the first interstellar object 1I/`Oumuamua which displayed no signs of evaporation but exhibited non-gravitational acceleration and also from the second interstellar object 2I/Borisov which behaved like a familiar comet.
*******
https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/3i-atlas-gemini-south
Too many advert breaks to copy 4 paragraphs best read at link, although above covers most.
💫☄️
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