The NASA Hubble Spatial Telescope has taken images of a recently discovered interstellar visitor which takes place in our solar system. Traveling at 130,000 MPH, 3i / Atlas is the fastest comet ever observed by astronomers – the speed of the comet suggests to its ancient origins, as well as its potential and ardent fate.
The spatial telescope of the asteroid funded by the asteroid funded by NASA installed in Rio Hurtado, Chile, initially detected the comet on July 1. Additional observations and analysis quickly confirmed that it was only the third known object to go through our solar system from deep space. In this case, it is probably from an unknown stars system far from the galaxy of the Milky Way, but does not expect astronomers to become more precise.
“No one knows where the comet comes from. It is as to dress a rifle ball for a thousandth of a second,” said the chief of the scientific team of Hubble observations, David Jewitt, in a statement. “You cannot project this with precision to determine where he started on his way.”
Despite all this speed, Jewitt and his colleagues were always able to target the Hubble telescope at 3i / Atlas to better look. The results offered experts an additional data treasure to examine while assessing more details on the comet. Based on their calculations, the rapid icy mass can be around 1,000 feet to 3.5 miles wide.
The Hubble telescope also provided an overview of the comet’s plume by ejecting on the side heated by the object sun, as well as a glimpse of the dust tail leaving the central core of the comet. A more in -depth analysis of its loss of dust is in accordance with the previous comets observed at around 300 million miles of the sun. Experts theorize that billions of years ago, 3i / Atlas has either withdrawn from a developing proto-planet system, or broke a small planet after having approached a white dwarf star. But although the physical characteristics correspond, one thing is clearly different from past examples – its speed.
To reach a speed of 130,000 MPH, 3i / Atlas must have crossed several gravitational slings while it was traveling near the stars, planets and nebula for billions of years. Each meeting nailed even more speed until it finally reaches its current rate. Basically, the faster the comet, the older it is.
Credit: NASA / JPL-CALTECH
3i / Atlas will pass closest to the sun in October 2025 – but this meeting could be the last cosmic meeting of the comet. At the end of the month, it will be less than 130 million kilometers from the star, just inside the Mars orbit. 3i / Atlas will remain visible for telescopes on the ground until the end of September, how close it will be to the sun to see.
And it may be for the old comet. There is a chance that the immense gravitational traction of the sun will be too strong for it to be able to manage. If this is the case, 3i / Atlas will eventually separate and disintegrate like countless comets before him. However, if he manages to survive the test, he will come out even more impressive. Similar to its fronds of past eons, the comet will gain even more speed, probably beating its own speed record because it finally leaves our solar system. There is also no need to worry – Nasa says that there is no chance that the coming will swing and will cause problems for the earth.
Astronomers should discover the fate of the comet in December 2025, when 3i / Atlas becomes observable again – if it survives its biggest challenge to this day, our sun.
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