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A few of the current pictures of 3I/ATLAS– the 3rd verified interstellar challenge be found travelling through our Solar System, following 1I/ ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov– reveal an intricate multi-jet structure.
This picture of 3I/ATLAS was recorded on October 31, 2025, by Lowell Observatory astronomer Qicheng Zhang. Image credit: Qicheng Zhang/ Lowell Observatory.
3I/ATLAS was found by the NASA-funded ATLAS(Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System)study telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, on July 1, 2025.
Understood as C/2025 N1(ATLAS)and A11pl3Z, the comet got here from the instructions of the constellation Sagittarius.
Its classification as the most dynamically severe things yet taped is because of its hyperbolic orbit with an incredibly high eccentricity and a severe hyperbolic excess speed.
3I/ATLAS reached its closest technique to the Sun– referred to as perihelion– on October 30, 2025.
The interstellar visitor came within 1.4 AU (huge systems) or 210 million km of the star– simply inside the orbit of Mars.
At this moment, the comet was taking a trip at its optimum speed of about 68 km/s and was quickly concealed from Earth-based telescopes due to its distance to the Sun in the sky.
Following the perihelion, it ended up being noticeable to the telescopes once again and will be observable through December as it moves far from the Sun and Earth, heading back into interstellar area.
The very first optical post-perihelion picture of 3I/ATLAS (see above) was recorded on October 31 by Lowell Observatory astronomer Qicheng Zhang utilizing the Discovery Telescope.
This picture of 3I/ATLAS was recorded on November 8, 2025, by astronomers from the ICQ Comet Observations group. Image credit: M. Jäger/ G. Rhemann/ E. Prosperi.
On November 8, a trio of astronomers from the ICQ Comet Observations group observed the comet at 29 degrees separation from the Sun in the sky.
Their images revealed a complicated jet structure of a minimum of 7 jets, a few of which are anti-tails.
“Given that a great deal of jets appear in numerous instructions, the reported non-gravitational velocity of 3I/ATLAS needs far more than 10-20% of its preliminary mass to have actually been ejected near perihelion,” Harvard University’s Professor Avi Loeb stated about the ICQ images.
“Only a portion of that mass brings an excess momentum in a favored instructions.”
“This suggests that the cloud of particles around 3I/ATLAS need to represent a considerable portion of its preliminary mass for a natural comet.”
This picture of 3I/ATLAS was recorded on November 9, 2025, by astronomers from the British Astronomical Association. Image credit: Michael Buechner/ Frank Niebling.
On November 9, a duo of astronomers from the British Astronomical Association (BAA) observed the comet utilizing 2 telescopes.
Their composite images revealed a long ‘smoking cigarettes’ tail and 2 anti-tail jets.
“This multi-jet structure makes up an amazing target for future observations with the Hubble and Webb telescopes, as 3I/ATLAS will get to closest technique to Earth on December 19, 2025,” Professor Loeb stated about the BAA images.
“Its very little range from Earth will be 269 million km, about a hundred times bigger than the level of the jet structure in the images.”
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