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| SpaceWeather |
An approaching object that was just discovered on 1 June has now been identified as an interstellar comet. Named Comet 3I/Atlas (3I for "third interstellar"), research revealed that this object first appeared in telescope observations in mid-June but went unnoticed then.
The mysterious Oumuamua was "officially" our first interstellar visitor with Borisov being the second. Initial estimates place the size of this Comet 3I/Atlas at about 20km (!) and travelling at a high speed of 68 km/second. As I was reading some of the reports of this new Comet, I can't believe that it's been 8 years since Oumuamua's visit (2017) ~ it seems like just a couple of years ago.
The first two interstellar Comets measured only 0.5 and 1km respectively (reports vary), so the mind boggles with this one being 20km! Perihelion is at end-October, when it comes close to Mars:
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| Space.com |
I still can't understand how it is that Oumuamua was (officially) our first interstellar visitor. Were there others that we haven't been told about? Or is it because the technology wasn't able to differentiate local Comets from interstellar ones?
If there weren't any interstellar visitors in all the years prior to 2017, why are we now getting three in 8 years? (Again, I highlight the size of this one....20km.)
And of course, my usual question when it comes to Comets ~ especially interstellar ones ~ what is the payload?
For more details, here are some links:
https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=03&month=07&year=2025
https://earthsky.org/space/new-interstellar-object-candidate-heading-toward-the-sun-a11pl3z/
As a side note ~ and I kid you not ~ I just re-watched an episode of Strange New Worlds yesterday (prepping for Season 3 in a couple of weeks) titled "Children of the Comet". Then I read about 3I/Atlas earlier today....
Namarie! 💗
