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When astronomers announced the finding of an third interstellar object In the solar system, the first thing that caught attention was its size. There was talk of a core of up to 20 kilometers in diameter, colossal dimensions that fed all kinds of hypotheses, including that it was an extraterrestrial ship. Now, the most clear image of the kite, obtained by the old Hubble space telescope, has reduced expectations.
It is much smaller than it seemed. The detailed new image of 3i/Atlas, Published by NASA Hubble teamhas allowed astronomers to limit the size of the comet with much greater precision. According to an analysis presented to The Astrophysical Journal Lettersthe icy nucleus of this object of another star system has a maximum diameter of 5.6 kilometers, but it could be much smaller, just about 320 meters.
This new estimate is between four and 60 times smaller than the initial figures. The reason for the initial confusion is that, even for the Hubble, the code core is invisible. What we see is a brilliant “comma”, a dust and gas -shaped gas envelope that is expelled from the nucleus as the first observations from the earth could not distinguish the small nucleus of the huge halo of dust that surrounds it.
It is getting rid of on the one hand. The image of the Hubble space telescope not only corrects the size of the kite, but also reveals important details of its behavior, such as an asymmetric dust ejection. The kite expels most of the material from the side that looks towards the sun, forming a kind of bright fan. This is a typical behavior in the comets of our own solar system: the heat of the sun causes the surface ice (pass from gas solid to gas) with more force on the daytime side of the nucleus.
In addition, a very weak dust tail is distinguished in the direction opposite to the sun, formed when solar radiation pressure pushes the finest particles. This structure confirms that 3I/Atlas behaves as A classic cometand not as an anomalous object. According to the study, the kite loses between six and 60 kilograms of dust per second, a rate that, although it seems high, is consistent with that of other comets observed at a distance to the similar sun.
Goodbye to speculation. This drastic readjustment in the size and behavior of the comet has important implications. A smaller core, similar to that of the other known interstellar comet, 2i/Borisovit fits much better in the cosmological models than one of 20 kilometers, which helps to explain that we have not yet seen more than three objects of other solar systems in our neighborhood.
As for its shape, the brilliant cloud of gas and dust makes it impossible to detect if 3i/Atlas has an elongated shape as 1i/’oumuamuathe first known interstellar object. What we do know is that this traveler, which moves at the incredible speed of 209,000 km/h, will continue to be a priority objective for more modern telescopes, such as James Webb. Each new observation helps us better understand these fascinating cosmic tourists and, as it has been clear, to correct some precipitated hypotheses.
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