A new celestial body coming from the past is at the end of our telescopes. Who immediately study it waiting for the comet interceptor mission
A new comet was spotted on 1 July by the Atlas telescope (Asteroid Terrestrial-Ipact Last Alert System) of Río Hurtado, in Chile. His unusual trajectory immediately had the suspicion that came from the interstellar space and this was subsequently confirmed by astronomers all over the world and the object was assigned its official designation: 3i/Atlas, to indicate its third -class status of known interstellar object. It is about 670 million kilometers from the sun and will reach its point as a maximum approach at the end of October 2025, passing just inside the orbit of Mars. It is estimated that it has a width of about 20 kilometers and trips about 60 km per second compared to the sun. It does not represent a danger to the earth, not approaching less than 240 million kilometers, i.e. over 1.5 times the distance between us and the sun. The planetary defense office of the European Space Agency (ESA), has promptly responded to the discovery: the automatic detection systems alerted the astronomers who are contributing to the global efforts for global efforts Take the path of the comet and find evidence of its existence in older observations and data. The Astronomes of the ESA are now using the telescopes positioned in the Hawaii islands, in Chile and Australia to keep the comet path under control. Some of these systems are owned by the ESA, others are made available by the individual properties in the longtime partnership. Scientists will now be interested in learning more about the composition and behavior of 3i/Atlas, which is an active comet. If it is heated enough approaching our star, it could start to sublimate, a process in which frozen gases are transformed directly into steam by transporting powder and ice particles into space to form the characteristic luminous tail. However, according to the calculations, when the comet reaches the closest point to the Earth it will be hidden behind the sun and it is expected that it will reappear by the beginning of December, offering astronomers another window for its study. What makes extraordinary interstellar objects such as 3i/Atlas is their foreign nature. While every planet, moon, asteroid, comet and form of life formed in our sun system shares a common origin, these interstellar visitors are real outsiders and remains of other planetary systems that bring with them clues to the formation of unknown worlds. Thousands of years may be needed before humans visit a planet in another solar system and the interstellar comets offer us the tempting opportunities to touch something truly extraterrestrial. These frozen vagabonds offer a rare and tangible connection with the wider galaxy, with materials formed in environments completely different from ours. Visiting one would mean connecting humanity with the universe on a much wider scale. To this end, ESA is preparing the comet interceptor mission. The probe will be launched in 2029 in a parking orbit at the L2 L2 Sole-Terra point, waiting for a suitable target: an uncontaminated comet coming from the distant Oort clouds that surround our solar system, or, unlikely but very interesting, an interstellar object. Each new interstellar visitor reminds us that we are part of a vast and dynamic galaxy and that, sometimes, it is the universe that comes to us.
