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Credit & Copyright: Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/K. Meech (IfA/U. Hawaii)
Processing: Jen Miller, Mahdi Zamani (NSF/NOIRLab)
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/iOumuamua 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, HawaiBi.
The left panel tracks the comet as it moves across the sky against
fixed background stars in successive exposures.
Three different filters were used, shown in red, green, and blue.
In the right panel the multiple exposures are registered and
combined to form a single image of the comet.
The comet's interstellar origin is also
clear from its orbit,
determined to be an eccentric, highly hyperbolic orbit that does
not loop back around the Sun and will return
3I/ATLAS
to interstellar space.
Not a threat to
planet Earth,
the inbound interstellar interloper is now
within the Jupiter's orbital distance of the Sun, while its
closest approach to the Sun will bring it just within the orbital
distance of Mars.
Processing: Jen Miller, Mahdi Zamani (NSF/NOIRLab)
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day