{"id":349393,"date":"2025-11-06T13:05:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T07:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=349393"},"modified":"2025-11-06T13:05:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T07:35:18","slug":"interstellar-comet-3i-atlas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/interstellar-comet-3i-atlas\/","title":{"rendered":"Interstellar Comet 3I\/ATLAS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>N<\/strong><strong>ews<\/strong><strong>: <\/strong>NASA confirmed water\u2019s chemical fingerprint on interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS, reshaping ideas on comet evolution and ingredients for life.<\/p>\n<h2>About Interstellar Comet 3I\/ATLAS<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_349394\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-349394\" style=\"width: 356px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-349394\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Source-ET-1.jpg?resize=356%2C262&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"262\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Source-ET-1.jpg?resize=300%2C221&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Source-ET-1.jpg?w=620&amp;ssl=1 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 356px) 100vw, 356px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-349394\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source &#8211; ET<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>3I\/ATLAS is an <strong>interstellar comet<\/strong> &#8211; the <strong>third known object<\/strong> from <strong>outside our solar system.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Naming<\/strong>: The <strong>prefix \u201c3I\u201d<\/strong> marks it as the <strong>third confirmed interstellar object<\/strong> after:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>1I\/<\/strong><strong>\u02bbOumuamua<\/strong><strong>&#8211;<\/strong> identified in <strong>2017<\/strong> (was <strong>dry<\/strong>))<\/li>\n<li><strong>2I\/<\/strong><strong>Borisov<\/strong> &#8211; identified in <strong>2019<\/strong> (was <strong>rich in carbon monoxide- rich<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Identified by:<\/strong> It was identified by the <strong>Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Hawaii.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Origin<\/strong><strong>: <\/strong>It entered our Solar System <strong>from another star system<\/strong> and is estimated to be at least <strong>seven billion years old<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Trajectory<\/strong><strong>: <\/strong>It is travelling on a<strong> hyperbolic path.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Speed: <\/strong>It travels at a <strong>speed of 57<\/strong><strong>\u201368 km\/s<\/strong><strong>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Composition<\/strong><strong>:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It is an <strong>active comet<\/strong> with a <strong>solid icy nucleus and a coma of gas and icy dust escaping from the nucleus. <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>NASA\u2019s <strong>Swift Observatory<\/strong> detected<strong> hydroxyl gas <\/strong>formed when sunlight breaks water molecules.<\/li>\n<li>It was <strong>losing water at a rate of roughly 40 kilograms per second<\/strong>, even though it was <strong>far beyond<\/strong> the typical distance where <strong>solar heat<\/strong> could cause water ice to vaporise.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Its estimated <strong>nucleus size is 10<\/strong><strong>\u2013<\/strong><strong>30 km, larger than earlier interstellar comets.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>No threat: <\/strong>It poses <strong>no threat to Earth<\/strong> and will remain far away.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>closest <\/strong>it will approach earth<strong> is about 1.8 astronomical units<\/strong> (about 170 million miles, or 270 million kilometers).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Significance<\/strong><strong>: <\/strong>The <strong>water signature<\/strong> suggests distant planetary systems may share chemistry with earth&#8217;s, informing models of comet and planet formation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: NASA confirmed water\u2019s chemical fingerprint on interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS, reshaping ideas on comet evolution and ingredients for life. About Interstellar Comet 3I\/ATLAS 3I\/ATLAS is an interstellar comet &#8211; the third known object from outside our solar system. Naming: The prefix \u201c3I\u201d marks it as the third confirmed interstellar object after: 1I\/\u02bbOumuamua&#8211; identified in 2017&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/interstellar-comet-3i-atlas\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Interstellar Comet 3I\/ATLAS<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1738,12039],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-349393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","category-knolls","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}