Scientists issue update on ‘potential hostile alien threat’ as appearance leaves them stunned
A key feature of the interstellar object that is travelling within our solar system has been highlighted in a new study, with scientists stunned at what they could see.
It's been affectionately named '3I/ATLAS' and it has got certain space experts scratching their heads, with numerous conspiracy theories about its origins and its suggested link to aliens turning heads.
The comet was first detected by researchers using the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) over at NASA, highlighting a mysterious terrestrial rock that would enter the Milky Way galaxy.
Roughly the size of New York, 3I/ATLAS has become the third interstellar space object to enter our solar system in recorded history, though experts are still unsure of its exact origins as it has disappeared behind the Sun until mid-November.
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Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has claimed that there is a chance of the comet not being a 'naturally formed object', even suggesting it could be an alien 'mothership'.
While these conspiracies continue to fly, the comet has emerged from behind the Sun in the past day or so, since it passed through solar conjunction with Earth, meaning it was hidden behind the Sun, earlier this month.
Three NASA spacecrafts observed the object's closest approach to the Sun, with data revealing that it brightened at a rate around seven times faster that typical comets as it reached our star.
"The reason for 3I/ATLAS's rapid brightening, which far exceeds the brightening rate of most Oort cloud comets at similar distances from the Sun, remains unclear," researchers Qicheng Zhang and Karl Battams from from the Lowell Observatory in Arizona and the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC, wrote.
The study was published earlier this week, and it detailed that the comet appeared bluer, instead of its previously reddish hue colour.
Scientists say that this is due to its gas emissions, though the study, which used data from the STEREO‑A (Solar TErrestrial Relations Observatory) and SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory), made use of a weather satellite called GOES-19, using special equipment to measure the comet's brightness and colour while it was hidden behind the Sun.
Satellite analysis revealed that 3I/ATLAS is in a huge, fuzzy coma, roughly half as wide as the full moon. They also detected water-related molecules in the comet's emissions.
These molecules were being produced at a growing rate as the comet approached our Sun, keeping in line with its brightening observed in optical images.
As for those looking to view it with their own telescopes, the comet should be visible in twilight and night skies throughout November and December, which will allow for a more in-depth study of its composition.
It is suggested that 3I/ATLAS will emerge far brighter than before, and scientists are still curious over its fast rate of brightening, which could have something to do with it having unique properties.
Loeb, who has been studying the comet since its discovery, noted that there is an 'unfavourable geometry' which hints at there being a 'design'. He also added that this has helped 'several space-based solar coronagraphs and heliospheric imagers' to observe its approach to perihelion.
Joshua Nair