What’s comet 3I/ATLAS? | The Planetary Society

It’s outdated

Preliminary research counsel that 3I/ATLAS could also be between 3 and 14 billion years outdated, doubtlessly that means that it’s older than the Photo voltaic System (which is 4.6 billion years outdated). This may additionally make it the oldest comet but seen.

We don’t know the place it got here from

Whereas astronomers can pinpoint the course from which 3I/ATLAS got here into the Photo voltaic System, this doesn’t inform them the place within the galaxy it originated. It’s not so simple as tracing a straight line — if this object has been travelling by means of area for tens of millions of years, its trajectory could have been nudged numerous instances by stars, molecular clouds, even the spiral arms of the galaxy itself. 

What we will deduce is that it probably began off in orbit round a star. Researchers suppose 3I/ATLAS was probably flung out of its star system by a detailed encounter with an enormous planet or one other close by star. Observations by the area telescopes JWST and SPHEREx have proven that the comet is wealthy in carbon dioxide, which means that it fashioned removed from its mother or father star, the place temperatures are chilly sufficient for carbon dioxide to change into a strong. 

We do know the place it’s going

3I/ATLAS is heading towards the Solar on the time of writing, and can attain perihelion (its closest level to the Solar) round Oct. 29, 2025, at a distance of about 1.4 astronomical models (210 million kilometers, or 130 million miles), simply contained in the orbit of Mars. 

After perihelion, it would go 0.65 astronomical models (97 million kilometers; 60 million miles) from Venus on Nov. 3, 2025. Quickly after that, the European House Company’s Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) spacecraft that’s en path to Jupiter will try to watch 3I/ATLAS utilizing its cameras, spectrometers, and a particle sensor.