After defending his doctoral theses about showing things between stars on Monday, June 30, Matthew Hopkins was planning to spend time on vacation. The universe seems to have other plans for it.
The next day, the last atlas telescope (Atlas) in Rio Hortado, Chile, discovered a mysterious being heading towards the sun. Early observations indicate that it came from outside our solar system, which is likely to achieve the third discovery of an object between the stars in history. Astronomers all over the world – including Hopkins – go to work, and are racing to collect as much data as possible about this rock rock. By Thursday, July 3, the Center for the Small Planet of the Astronomical Union of Astronomical Union He emphasized that the object between the stars was, in fact, to travel through our cosmic lifeNaming 3i/Atlas. Now, Hopkins and his colleagues believe they know where it came from.
“It’s very exciting!” Hopkins, a student of graduate studies in astronomical physics at Oxford University, said, ” IFLSCIENCE. “I was expecting an opportunity to compare my predictions with new data for four years, and 3i/atlas already give us new visions about this wonderful population that extends the galaxy.”
Through initial notes, astronomers learn a lot about 3i/atlas. It is the largest and brightest one among the stars so far, according to Space.com. Experts are somewhat confident that it is a guilty that is launched through our solar system at an incredibly high speed. Upon discovering, the goal was travel 137,000 miles per hour (221,000 km per hour), and it will speed up with the approaching of the sun. 3i/Atlas seems much greater than the being among the stars that came before: Omuamua and Comet 2i/Borisov. Early size estimates Suggest Its width can be from 6 to 19 miles (10 to 30 km). Don’t worry, there is no chance to hit the space rock that strikes our planet, but it will safely offer Earth approach on October 30.
Primary spectral analysis Suggest 3i/ATLAS is more modern than the typical comets of the solar system, similar to some things across the plant-planets that revolve around the sun behind the orbit of Neptune-or the small ice heavenly bodies that are located between Jupiter and Neptune called Centaurs. Another study to make The optical notes of the object that was found to be similar in color with some comets in the solar system, but it is noticeably clear from ‘OMUAMUA and 2i/Borisov.
Together, these early results draw a vivid picture of the latest guest of our solar system, but discovering where this comet came is no less important than knowing its shape. Objects between stars like this one are “primitive residue from the process of forming the planet in other planet systems,” wrote Daril Celesmann, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Michigan State University, in an article on Conversation. Understanding the origin of 3i/atlas will allow astronomers to extract information about how planets are formed in this foreign stars system.
To this end, Hopkins and his colleagues analyzed 3i/atlas using the otautahi-oxford model. This new model combines the European Space Agency’s GAIA data (ESA) with models of protocol chemistry and galaxy dynamics to predict the distributions of speeds, ages and structures across the population among the stars in our cosmic live. Hopkins and many of his participants Contribute To develop Otautahi-Axford.
The results are currently available on Preprint Service Arxiv The peer was not reviewed after the peer review, 3i/atlas proposed that originated from a specific part of the galaxy disk in the Milky Way. This is the ingredient that resembles the disk in our galaxy, which contains stars, gas and dust, and rotates in the circular Coplaanar movement around the galaxy. According to the Hopkins study, it is possible that 3i/atlas of the thick part of the disk, which It includes About 10 % of the star mass of the Milky Way. These stars are much older than those in the delicate Galaxy disk.
“The study of its chemistry and dynamics will add to our understanding of how the planet formation and development processes occur via the Milky Way disk, and how such things respond to the potential of the Milky Way,” the study mentioned. Planets are small heavenly bodies – such as asteroids or comets – Serving As building blocks from planets.
(Al -Muttan 3i/Atlas) may be from an old star in the thick disk, and we believe that this thing is possible for a longer period of the era of the solar system, “said co -author Chris Lente, professor of astronomical physics in Oxford, told IFLSCIENCE. “There is two -thirds opportunity to be greater than 7 billion (years), and this would explain the color.” If this is confirmed, this will indicate the first being among the known stars to visit it from this distinguished galaxy.
To test their hypothesis, researchers will closely monitor 3i/atlas with approaching the sun. Linotout explained that the old stars tend to produce things between stars rich in water. If this comet descends from the thick disk, it should result in a lot of comic activity, which occurs when the surface ice rises and turns directly from solid to gas. Meanwhile, astronomers around the world will continue to get to know our third visitor among the stars in Galaxy.
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