Hubble Space Telescope Captures Clearest View Yet of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

The groundbreaking picture Hubble took is with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope, through which scientists now have the clearest view of 3I/ATLAS. It depicts the formation of a coma, a vapor of rock and dust around the center of the comet and the very beginnings of a tail. 

The nucleus in itself is buried within the coma but the data presented by Hubble enabled the scientists to draw an approximation of its size. It may be up to one hundred thousand feet and 3.5 miles; 5.6 km and across one thousand feet and 320 meters. 

The side of the comet facing the Sun can be seen sporting a dust plume that gives the coma and tail their nourishment. All these features demonstrate that the comet acts identically to natural solar system comets other than its abnormal speed and trajectory.

An In-depth look at its journey

The danger that is bringing 3I/ATLAS to Earth is not present. It will be nearest at 1.8 AU roughly 167M miles or 270 km away on October 29, 2025, it will be at its closest approach to the Sun, known as perihelion. In the meantime, it will be further away than Mars itself is from the Sun. Following that it will be eclipsed by the glare of the Sun as seen on Earth but on Mars, telescopes will still observe it and the comet will find its way to the sky of the Earth 2025, in the month of December.

An Opportunity to Study

The rare object is of interest to scientists as the comet comes nearer to the Sun, it will warm up and more gases and dust will fly out known as outgassing. This process will enable the astronomers to calculate what the comet is made of through spectroscopy. It will also allow them to compare it with the ones that are born in our solar system. An example is that the interstellar comet 2I/ Borisov contained more carbon monoxide than the local ones indicating that these things can differ significantly returning to Astronomy.

What Does It Mean? Astronomy stands to gain a great deal in the way of astronomical furniture and instruments of precision, whenever the experiment shall be considered entirely made by having on hand, the result of its discovery. Although 3I/ATLAS is an exciting discovery the coma obscures the nucleus and it is difficult to make any definitive conclusions about the number of other objects resembling it. It is not even sure whether it is an object that can easily be observed but is huge or looks bright because it has dust in it.

Nevertheless, thousands of these interstellar objects might be travelling through our solar system at any one time and an overwhelming majority of them are too small or dull to notice. However, given more potent instruments such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which is soon going to be fully operational, astronomers expect to discover at least one new interstellar object annually perhaps even before they become active as comets.

An Age of Discovery

We have arrived at a different era of space discovery, according to David Jewitt, who was the Chief scientist on Hubble observations. Explaining this newest interstellar wayfarer, who happens to be of a previously unnoticed species, he said: The equipment that is available today is assisting in unlocking mysteries of this universe that were kept in the dark when we were a few years back. The results of Hubble observations made on 3I/ATLAS will be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters; it will be a milestone toward the bigger picture of the universe.