3I/ATLAS is just the third-ever interstellar object confirmed to be from outside the solar system and which we have telescopes to observe in detail 3I/Atlas is by far the largest and it if known to come from the core of Milky Way so it is the oldest comet ever found. The other two interstellar intruders were 1I/’Oumuamua, discovered in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, detected in 2019.
The JWST, Hubble Space Telescope and the SPHEREx Observatory are taking observations of 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system. The goal is find out characteristics of 3I/ATLAS, including its size, physical properties, and, importantly, its chemical makeup.
The interstellar comet is likely about 7 billion years old, meaning it is the oldest comet ever seen and around 3 billion years older than the solar system. It is the oldest object we are looking at up close. It is from outside the solar system. It is showing unusual comet activity. It is brighter than expected. Many, many things about it are unusual. We should redirect the Juno mission from orbiting Jupiter to get a closer look at 3I/Atlas. Juno is at the end of its mission life. However, there is resistance to this because some have speculated about possible alien evidence aspects to 3I/Atlas. Even if there is no alien evidence, this is a possibly once in 10,000 year chance to get a look at a Milky Way galaxy core originating object. The core is 30,000 light years away and we are not sending any probes to the core and have to hope for chance comets from that direction. An object from the core that is this large should statistically be very, very rare. The moons of Jupiter are not going anywhere and we have already been watching them for years using Juno.
Interstellar comet could actually be around 7 billion years old, meaning it is the oldest comet ever seen and around 3 billion years older than the solar system.
Studying comets like this from other star systems can be compared to what have seen about conditions around the sun 4.6 billion years ago, when the planets, asteroids, and comets of the solar system were forming.
Comets approach the sun and are warmed by its heat, frozen materials within them are transformed from solids straight into gases. This results in gases escaping which is called outgassing.
As expected, 3I/ATLAS is outgassing as it approaches the sun, and astronomers have used the JWST and its NIRSpec instrument to identify carbon dioxide, water, water ice, carbon monoxide, and the smelly gas carbonyl sulfide in its coma. 3I/Atlas has highest ratio of carbon dioxide to water ever observed in a comet. This could reveal more about the conditions in which 3I/ATLAS formed.
The abundance of carbon dioxide in the coma of 3I/ATLAS could indicate that the interstellar comet has a heart that is very rich in carbon dioxide.
1. The comet might contain ices that were exposed to much higher levels of radiation than comets in the solar system have been exposed to.
OR
2. high carbon dioxide content could indicate that 3I/ATLAS may have formed in a specific site called the carbon dioxide ice line within the protoplanetary disk as the planets were forming around the original star. This is defined as the point at which the temperature around an infant star or protostar falls low enough to allow carbon dioxide to change from a gas to a solid.
The low abundance of water vapor in the coma of 3I/ATLAS could indicate that there is something within the comet that is inhibiting heat from penetrating the icy core of the comet.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
Avi Loeb has his own theory about this object:
“Harvard astrophysics professor Avi Loeb and colleagues last week uploaded a paper titled Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology? to the arXiv preprint server. (The paper has not yet been peer reviewed.)”
See:
https://www.sciencealert.com/is-3i-atlas-comet-an-alien-probe-these-are-the-signs-to-look-for