Cambridge, MA – A strange interstellar object speeding through our solar system is baffling astronomers, and a Harvard scientist says it’s unlike anything we’ve seen before.
According to various agencies, 3I/ATLAS — only the third confirmed interstellar object ever detected — was spotted July 1 by the ATLAS survey in Chile. It’s racing toward its closest approach to the Sun on Oct. 29 at nearly 134,000 mph (60 km/s).
New high-resolution observations from the Hubble Space Telescope show a bright plume of dust blasting toward the Sun, with only a faint tail streaming away. In typical comets, sunlight pushes dust behind the object, but in this case, the brightest region is in front. Hubble data suggest the dust is being ejected from the hot, Sun-facing side of the nucleus at speeds of up to 22 meters per second, releasing between 6 and 60 kilograms every second.
“This is not a normal comet,” Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb said. “We’ve never seen the glow in front of it like this.” Loeb believes the unusual activity makes it worth studying closely — even considering the possibility it could be engineered.
Hubble’s measurements indicate the solid nucleus is no more than 2.8 kilometers across and may be much smaller. The team behind the study notes that without its bright dust coma, 3I/ATLAS might have gone undetected, meaning other interstellar objects could be slipping past unseen.
While most scientists think the glow is caused by sublimating ice on the Sun-facing side, Loeb warns that humanity should be ready for any possibility. “It may come to save us or destroy us,” he said. “We’d better be prepared for both.”
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