Night sky: Some of the strange objects in our solar system
Oumaumua, (which in Hawaiian means 'first distant messenger'), was travelling too fast to have originated from within our solar system, 54 miles per second, with comets and asteroids from within normally only achieving 12 miles per second. By January 2018, the object was lost by even the most powerful telescopes, probably never to be seen again.
Within a few years, another object appeared, 2I/Borisov, discovered in August 2019. Travelling at 110,000mph, the object measured 3,200 metres across, with the last observations recorded in the summer of 2020.
Now, another cosmic wanderer has been spotted, with its trajectory indicating that it will pass Mars in October 2025, with its closest approach to Earth in December. The object measures 12 miles wide and was first christened A11pl3Z but since renamed 3I/Atlas, as it was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, (ATLAS), telescope in Chile.
The object's speed has been measured at 37 miles per second, which classes it as heralding from outside of our solar system. 3I/Atlas will pass Mars in October at 18 million miles, passing Earth at a totally safe distance of 150 million miles, so no threat to us but a great opportunity to study it.
From an amateur astronomer's perspective, as the visitor approaches Earth, it is likely to brighten to a point sufficient for small telescopes and even binoculars to spot it.
In space news, and rather sadly, a capsule carrying the ashes of 166 people that was supposed to take-off then make several orbits of the Earth before returning safely, didn't complete its intended feat.
A German start-up firm, The Exploration Company, (TEC), said that it lost contact with the capsule after it had made two orbits of the Earth, with the craft ditching in the Pacific Ocean minutes before its scheduled splash-down designation. Designed to fulfil the dying wishes of the deceased who had dreamed of becoming astronauts, the capsule has been declared lost.
On the morning of Sunday, July 13, there's a chance to glimpse Venus in the morning sky just before dawn. Venus will be sitting over the horizon to the northeast, outshining anything else in the sky. The bright star Aldebaran is close by.
On the evening of Tuesday, July 15, Saturn, rising at around 11.30pm, will be positioned close to the Moon in the constellation of Pisces. Also in the evening sky is Mars, low in the west after sunset, but becoming increasingly more difficult to spot.
Send your astrophotography pictures to: thenightsky@themoon.co.uk
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Daily Record
an hour ago
- Daily Record
Scientists find ice comet older than the Sun that may be visible from Earth this year
Possibly the oldest comet ever seen has been discovered by scientists who believe the ancient rock may predate the Sun. First spotted last week, comet 3I/ATLAS is only the third known object from beyond our solar system, and it is the first ever to travel to us from a completely different region of the Milky Way. And what's more, it may be visible from Earth later this year. The object, which is thought to be rich in ice, was first spotted on July 1, by the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile, when it was about 670 million km from the Sun. Oxford University astronomer Matthew Hopkins presented the exciting findings at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Durham last week. His team discovered the comet by complete surprise, just before the astronomer was due to go on holiday. But instead of the 'quiet Wednesday' he had planned, him and his fellow researchers found what may be the oldest space object ever discovered. "All non-interstellar comets such as Halley's comet formed with our solar system, so are up to 4.5 billion years old," Hopkins said. Halley's Comet is a famous periodic comet that orbits the Sun and is visible from Earth approximately every 75-76 years. It was last seen in 1986 and is predicted to return in mid-2061, and is named after its discoverer Edmond Halley. While Halley's comet is as old as our solar system, Hopkins believes 3I/ATLAS may be almost twice as ancient at seven billion years old. The astronomer continued: "Interstellar visitors have the potential to be far older, and of those known about so far our statistical method suggests that 3I/ATLAS is very likely to be the oldest comet we have ever seen." Two objects from elsewhere in the cosmos have been discovered previously, but 3I/ATLAS is estimated to be far older and larger. It is travelling on a steep path through the galaxy, and based on its trajectory, scientists believe it came from an area of the Milky Way called the 'thick disk'. The thick disk, found in many spiral galaxies such as the Milky Way, is a population of ancient stars which orbit either above or below the thin plane where the Sun and most other stars live. This recently discovered comet is estimated to be rich in water ice due to the fact it was formed around an old, thick-disk star. As the space object nears the Sun it will heat up, triggering vapour and dust that will give it a glowing tail as it shoots through space. Experts say that the ice comet may be visible through a standard telescope later this year, or in early 2026, so keen amateur astronomers should keep an eye out. "This is an object from a part of the galaxy we've never seen up close before," said Professor Chris Lintott, co-author of the study and presenter of the BBC's The Sky at Night. "We think there's a two-thirds chance this comet is older than the solar system, and that it's been drifting through interstellar space ever since." The team's findings come from applying a model developed during Hopkins' doctoral research, which simulates the properties of interstellar objects based on their orbits and likely stellar origins. This research model, dubbed the Ōtautahi-Oxford Model, marks the first real-time application of predictive modelling to an interstellar comet.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Comet or alien? Key piece of evidence shows interstellar object is a UFO
Earlier this month, astronomers spotted a bizarre interstellar object hurtling through the solar system. Dubbed 3I/ATLAS, this 12-mile long visitor has travelled to our sun from another star on a journey that could have taken billions of years. However, physicist Professor Avi Loeb says he has spotted the key piece of evidence that shows 3I/ATLAS could be an alien spacecraft as it's too big to be natural. Experts suggest that it must either be an exceptionally large solid mass or a smaller comet with a bright envelope of gas and dust. If it is not a comet, Professor Loeb says 3I/ATLAS is so impossibly large that the chances of it naturally reaching our sun are incredibly low. Professor Loeb says: 'It is difficult to imagine a natural process that would favor a plunge towards the inner solar system at 60km per second. 'An alternative is that the object targets the inner solar system by some technological design.' 3I/ATLAS was first spotted by astronomers on July 1 by NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System. After tracing its orbital path, scientists realized that its extremely elliptical orbit and high speed meant its origins lay outside the solar system. This makes it only the third interstellar object that humanity has detected, following 'Oumuamua in 2017 and Borisov in 2019. Arriving from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, 3I/ATLAS is currently heading towards the inner solar system at 135,000 miles per hour. NASA predicts that it will reach its closest point to the sun on October 30, at a distance of 130 million miles - passing just within the orbit of Mars. Thankfully, the object poses no threat to Earth and will pass harmlessly at around 150 million miles away at its closest point. Since the object is currently around 300 million miles from Earth, astronomers can't directly measure how large it is. Instead, they try and work out how much light the object gives off and estimate its size based on how reflective it might be. If it is a solid object like an asteroid, which reflects around five per cent of the light that hits it, then 3I/ATLAS must be between 12 and 14 miles in diameter. That makes 3I/ATLAS up to 200 times larger than the 100-metre-long and extremely thin 'Oumuamua. Professor Loeb says this fact immediately made him suspicious since large objects are typically much rarer than smaller ones. Professor Loeb says: 'Now you ask, "how many objects on the scale of 'Oumuamua are there for each object that is 24km in size?" 'The answer is about a million. But we haven't seen a million 'Oumuamua-sized interstellar objects before seeing this one, it's very strange.' But Professor Loeb says that the strangeness of 3I/ATLAS' size doesn't stop there. In a paper, now accepted for publication by the Research Notes of the AAS, Professor Loeb asked what it would take for an object of 3I/ATLAS' size to reach Earth. Based on how often we see objects of this size, previous research calculated how many 12-mile-long objects could exist out in the Milky Way. When Professor Loeb took this number and multiplied it by the mass of 3I/ATLAS, the result 'makes zero sense'. He says: 'This ends up being a quarter of the mass of the stars in the Milky Way. 'But because only two per cent of the mass in stars is in heavy elements that make rocks, you don't have the mass to make enough rocks of this size.' The implication is that 3I/ATLAS is much, much rarer than its appearance in our Solar System suggests. In fact, Professor Loeb argues that objects this big are too rare for their appearance in the inner solar system to be random. Could it be anything else? The alternative explanation for 3I/ATLAS' apparent size is that it is much smaller and much more reflective than any asteroid. That would be possible if the interstellar object is a comet, a ball of ice and dust which moves very quickly through space. If it were a comet, the heat from the sun would evaporate a layer of ice and dust, which would reflect back a lot of light. This would explain why 3I/ATLAS appears to be so bright while maintaining that its core is small enough to be natural. This is the accepted answer among most astronomers and space agencies, with NASA and the European Space Agency labelling the object an 'interstellar comet'. 'Likely': The alternative explanation is that 3I/ATLAS is a comet with a bright, reflective envelope of gas and dust and a very small core While Professor Loeb says that this is the 'simplest and most likely' solution, he doesn't think that the evidence for the comet theory is conclusive. For example, he points to a recent observation by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT). The VLT did not find direct evidence of dust or gas being released by the object, but concluded that it was a comet based on surface 'reddening' caused by dust. Professor Loeb maintains that this could simply be caused by the fact that the surface is red. Likewise, observations showing the fuzzy streak of the comet's gas layer could be an artefact of the long exposure images and 3I/ATLAS' high speed. This doesn't mean that 3I/ATLAS isn't a comet, but Professor Loeb believes it's still too early to rule out the possibility that it is a solid object. The professor says: 'The good news is that it will come closer to the sun and it will get heated up by sunlight.
Daily Mail
a day ago
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The key piece of evidence that shows interstellar object is really an alien spacecraft, according to experts
Earlier this month, astronomers spotted a bizarre interstellar object hurtling through the solar system. Dubbed 3I/ATLAS, this 12 miles (20km) long visitor has travelled to our sun from another star on a journey that could have taken billions of years. But now, a leading physicist says he has spotted the key piece of evidence that shows 3I/ATLAS could be an alien spacecraft. Professor Avi Loeb, a theoretical physicist and cosmologist from Harvard University, told MailOnline that this interstellar object is simply too big to be natural. Experts suggest that it must either be an exceptionally large solid mass or a smaller comet with a bright envelope of gas and dust. If it is not a comet, Professor Loeb says 3I/ATLAS is so impossibly large that the chances of it naturally reaching our sun are incredibly low. Professor Loeb says: 'It is difficult to imagine a natural process that would favour a plunge towards the inner solar system at 60 kilometres per second. 'An alternative is that the object targets the inner solar system by some technological design.' 3I/ATLAS was first spotted by astronomers on July 1 by NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System. After tracing its orbital path, scientists realised that its extremely elliptical orbit and high speed meant its origins lay outside the solar system. This makes it only the third interstellar object that humanity has detected, following 'Oumuamua in 2017 and Borisov in 2019. Arriving from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, 3I/ATLAS is currently heading towards the inner solar system at 135,000 miles per hour. NASA predicts that it will reach its closest point to the sun on October 30, at a distance of 130 million miles (210 million km) - passing just within the orbit of Mars. Thankfully, the object poses no threat to Earth and will pass harmlessly at around 150 million miles (240 million km) away at its closest point. Since the object is currently around 300 million miles (490 million km) from Earth, astronomers can't directly measure how large it is. Instead, they try and work out how much light the object gives off and estimate its size based on how reflective it might be. If it is a solid object like an asteroid, which reflects around five per cent of the light that hits it, then 3I/ATLAS must be between 12 and 14 miles (20-24km) in diameter. That makes 3I/ATLAS up to 200 times larger than the 100-metre-long and extremely thin 'Oumuamua. Professor Loeb says this fact immediately made him suspicious since large objects are typically much rarer than smaller ones. Professor Loeb says: 'Now you ask, "how many objects on the scale of 'Oumuamua are there for each object that is 24 kilometres in size?" 'The answer is about a million. But we haven't seen a million 'Oumuamua-sized interstellar objects before seeing this one, it's very strange.' But Professor Loeb says that the strangeness of 3I/ATLAS' size doesn't stop there. In a paper, now accepted for publication by the Research Notes of the AAS, Professor Loeb asked what it would take for an object of 3I/ATLAS' size to reach Earth. Based on how often we see objects of this size, previous research calculated how many 12-mile-long objects could exist out in the Milky Way. When Professor Loeb took this number and multiplied it by the mass of 3I/ATLAS, the result 'makes zero sense'. 'This ends up being a quarter of the mass of the stars in the Milky Way,' says Professor Loeb. 'But because only two per cent of the mass in stars is in heavy elements that make rocks, you don't have the mass to make enough rocks of this size.' The implication is that 3I/ATLAS is much, much rarer than its appearance in our Solar System suggests. In fact, Professor Loeb argues that objects this big are too rare for their appearance in the inner solar system to be random. Professor Loeb says: 'It's not like these objects are floating around in all directions, this object was aiming to get to the inner solar system. 'The question is: "Why was it sent in the direction of the inner solar system?"' Professor Loeb isn't sure what this says about 3I/ATLAS' origins, but he compares the situation to the novel 'Rendezvous with Rama' by Arthur C. Clarke. In that story, an interstellar object arriving in the solar system turns out to be an alien spacecraft sent by an advanced civilisation. However, just like in Arthur C. Clarke's fictional account, Professor Loeb suggests that scientists will need to do a lot more investigation before we know what 3I/ATLAS is. Could it be anything else? The alternative explanation for 3I/ATLAS' apparent size is that it is much smaller and much more reflective than any asteroid. That would be possible if the interstellar object is a comet, a ball of ice and dust which moves very quickly through space. If it were a comet, the heat from the sun would evaporate a layer of ice and dust, which would reflect back a lot of light. This would explain why 3I/ATLAS appears to be so bright while maintaining that its core is small enough to be natural. This is the accepted answer among most astronomers and space agencies, with NASA and the European Space Agency labelling the object an 'interstellar comet '. While Professor Loeb says that this is the 'simplest and most likely' solution, he doesn't think that the evidence for the comet theory is conclusive. For example, he points to a recent observation by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT). The VLT did not find direct evidence of dust or gas being released by the object, but concluded that it was a comet based on surface 'reddening' caused by dust. Professor Loeb maintains that this could simply be caused by the fact that the surface is red. Likewise, observations showing the fuzzy streak of the comet's gas layer could be an artefact of the long exposure images and 3I/ATLAS' high speed. This doesn't mean that 3I/ATLAS isn't a comet, but Professor Loeb believes it's still too early to rule out the possibility that it is a solid object. 'The good news is that it will come closer to the sun and it will get heated up by sunlight,' says Professor Loeb. 'The more it is heated, the more mass it would shed if it were a comet, and the easier it will be for us to tell what this object is.' Our first interstellar visitor sailed past Earth at at 97,200mph in 2017, but what exactly was Oumuamua? A cigar-shaped object named 'Oumuamua sailed past Earth at 97,200mph (156,428km/h) in October. It was first spotted by a telescope in Hawaii on 19 October, and was observed 34 separate times in the following week. It is named after the Hawaiian term for 'scout' or 'messenger' and passed the Earth at about 85 times the distance to the moon. It was the first interstellar object seen in the solar system, and it baffled astronomers. Initially, it was thought the object could be a comet. However, it displays none of the classic behavior expected of comets, such as a dusty, water-ice particle tail. The asteroid is up to one-quarter mile (400 meters) long and highly-elongated - perhaps 10 times as long as it is wide. That aspect ratio is greater than that of any asteroid or asteroid observed in our solar system to date. But the asteroid's slightly red hue — specifically pale pink — and varying brightness are remarkably similar to objects in our own solar system. Around the size of the Gherkin skyscraper in London, some astronomers were convinced it was piloted by aliens due to the vast distance the object traveled without being destroyed – and the closeness of its journey past the Earth. Alien hunters at SETI – the Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence based at Berkeley University, California said there was a possibility the rock was 'an alien artefact'. But scientists from Queen's University Belfast took a good look at the object and said it appears to be an asteroid, or 'planetesimal' as originally thought. Researchers believe the cigar-shaped asteroid had a 'violent past', after looking at the light bouncing off its surface. They aren't exactly sure when the violent collision took place, but they believe the lonely asteroid's tumbling will continue for at least a billion years.
