Is anyone following 3I/Atlas?

[kentuck]

The interstellar "object" that just zipped thru our solar system and freaked out all the scientists? What do you think about it?

[FSogol]

1. It's a Vogon Constructor Fleet, under orders of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council. They're building a hyperspace

bypass.

[kentuck]

2. It is reportedly about the size of Manhattan...

...and twice as large as the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. It is scheduled to pass Earth again in October and December. It is very unusual. It has no bright tail and is traveling very fast.

[shelshaw]

3. It's time to shed our containers

[marble falls]

30. Especially the one in the White House, it's full of shit.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Not "again" - it's about halfway between Mars' and Jupiter's orbits

https://www.space.com/astronomy/james-webb-space-telescope-takes-1st-look-at-interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-with-unexpected-results

(see the video there, or Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3I/ATLAS )

It will pass its closest to the Sun 29 October, but Earth will be on the other side then. Closest approach to Earth will be 1.8 AU (ie 1.8 times as far away as the Sun) on Dec 19.

[mr715]

10. Space vacuum Jupiter

Looks like a very near miss. Incredible.

Edit: Didn't even notice how it gets even closer to Mars.

[kentuck]

12. I heard that it's timing was unusual in that it got so close to 3 different planets.

An unusual coincidence.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. About 0.36 AU from Jupiter, 0.2 AU from Mars

at the end of March 2026, and the start of October 2025 respectively. From NASA's wonderful Horizons app: https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons/app.html#/

[electric_blue68]

22. Oh, I see what you mean!

[LeftInTX]

23. Life on Mars will be wiped out

[electric_blue68]

21. TY, the vid

[marble falls]

31. So the sky if falling, we need to tell the king!

[LearnedHand]

5. FTW!

[Volaris]

26. Theyre here for donald, they want him to help write poetry.

[marble falls]

32. I just hate when that happens, dammit. And I just pawned my firearm. It was neato, too ....

[Blue Full Moon]

4. This fits what is going on

Last edited Tue Aug 26, 2025, 04:34 PM - Edit history (1)

?si=JIqQpW2zxqjFCuDy

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. No it does not. . . . nt

[marble falls]

29. What a waste of a good education. How does he know what a planet's population does to escape to other star systems?

[MineralMan]

6. Following, but there's such a crowd of wackadoos out there

that is it hard to sort out the scare mongers from the science geeks.

Anton Petrov is usually worth watching on anything like this. His head is pretty firmly attached to his shoulders and he won't ever speculate based on wacky hypotheses. His YouTube channel is one of the best on that and other space topics.

[mr715]

7. It is really cool.

Weird chemical makeup that scientists are unpacking, super fast movement. They are classifying it as an extrasolar comet.

It does not appear it is going to get particularly close to Earth but it well get comparatively close to Jupiter.

[BoRaGard]

9. I for one welcome our new 3I/Atlas overlords

They can't be worse than the Pedo Protecting repubes

[HBguy]

11. 3I/ATLAS reality check

OK, comet guy here. There really is a lot of nonsense going around about this object. Here's the scoop:

1) This is a totally natural comet, just like the thousands of other comets in our solar system, only this one comes from a planetary system somewhere else in the galaxy. That makes it an enormously interesting comet from a scientific perspective -- but that is ALL it is.

2) It comes nowhere near Earth (which is unfortunate, actually, since it would be quite a bit easier to study if it did). It will, however, come fairly close to Mars, and since we have spacecraft in orbit around that planet, there's hope that one or more of them will be able to collect useful observations of it.

3) It is NOT the "size of Manhattan." We're not sure of the size of the nucleus (since it's hidden in a coma of gas and dust, just like all other comets), but the latest data I've seen suggests a diameter of 1 to 5 km.

4) We astronomers are not "stunned" or "mystified" or any such thing . . . but we are, however, thrilled at the opportunity to study this object that originated somewhere else in the galaxy, and that hopefully will be able to provide some fascinating insights into the overall formation process of planetary systems (including ours).

5) Thus far, its motion has been entirely consistent with the known laws of physics, and there is absolutely no reason to suspect that it will deviate from that.

For what it's worth, I was one of the first astronomers to image this comet after it was discovered, and I continue to image it on a reasonably consistent basis.

[kentuck]

14. Good to hear from an expert on this subject...

There is a lot of junk info out there, for sure. Thanks for the clarification.

[flamingdem]

15. Good information

Much appreciated and welcome!

[kentuck]

16. Is it true that it does not have a tail like the "normal" comets?

If so, what we attribute that to?

[DavidDvorkin]

25. Comets don't normally develop tails until they're close enough to the sun

for the solar wind to create the tail.

[marble falls]

28. Paranoid conspiracy babble.

[StarryNite]

17. Thank you for the information.

Keep us updated.

[MineralMan]

18. Thanks.

I guess we don't need to run for our lives, then.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. Welcome to DU. . . nt

[marble falls]

27. But the experts at the Enquirer and the New York Post sez .......... .

[LetMyPeopleVote]

33. Welcome to DU

[Earl_from_PA]

24. It's the end of the world as we know it...

Lenny Bruce is not afraid...