A new analysis of our solar system’s interstellar interloper, 3I/ATLAS, reveal that it’s spewing huge amounts of water and astronomers can’t immediately explain why.
3I/ATLAS is such an unusual entity that scientists have subtly stopped referring to it as a comet, instead giving it the title of ‘interstellar object’, covering their bases one would suppose in case it really does turn out to be a UFO or some form of alien technology. We live in such a time, while most people would be surprised, very few if anyone would be actually shocked. The whole world seems to be waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop, and they should be. That’s the memo.
“Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.” Zechariah 5:1 (KJB)
Now this new wrinkle in the saga of 3I/ATLAS is fascinating, evidentially what ever it is it is able to not only contain massive amounts of water but it is currently ejecting water at the rate of 88 pounds per second, that’s 10.55 gallons. If you’re a science geek, this is what’s happening – “measurements on 2025 July 31–August 1 yielded a first, marginal detection of OH (A2Σ–X2Π) emission near 3085 Å, corresponding to a water production rate of (0.74 ± 0.50) × 1027 molecules s−1.” But no matter how you slice it, 3I/ATLAS continues to confound even the most jaded sky watchers. It will be interesting to see what it actually turns out to be. (SPOILER ALERT: Days of Noah)
Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Is Spraying Something Highly Unexpected
FROM FUTURISM: The object, which is widely believed to be comet, showed strong ultraviolet emissions that are unmistakable telltales of hydroxyl gas (OH), a byproduct of water, when astronomers imaged it with the with NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift space telescope before it disappeared behind the Sun. The emissions could only be spotted from space because the ultraviolet light would get absorbed in the atmosphere.
Their findings, detailed in a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, argue that the presence of all this OH indicates the comet is ejecting water vapor at a torrential rate of about 88 pounds per second — which is around the same rate as a fire hose running at full blast, according to a press release about the findings.
The most extraordinary thing is that this was spotted happening pretty far from the Sun, at a heliocentric distance of about three astronomical units (AU) away, or three times the distance between the Earth and our star. Typically, comets stray much closer to the Sun before the water ice in their core called a nucleus begins to sublimate, or instantly transform from a solid to a gas. Something else must be driving the water dumping in 3I/ATLAS — which also implies, tantalizingly, that the comet must harbor considerable stores of water for this process to keep going.
“When we detect water — or even its faint ultraviolet echo, OH, — from an interstellar comet, we’re reading a note from another planetary system,” coauthor Dennis Bodewits, a professor of physics at Auburn TK, said in the release. “It tells us that the ingredients for life’s chemistry are not unique to our own.”
It’s another example of the fascinating strangeness of interstellar objects like 3I/ATLAS. Think of it as a sample of somewhere very far away, perhaps tens of millions of light years away, careening straight past our doorstep. That it’s in many ways bizarre compared to local comets hints at just how unique these unimaginable alien realms must be, and how we have so much more to understand of how star systems form and how their structures may evolve.
Typically, a comet’s coma, a huge halo of gas and dust that give comets their glowing appearance, begin to form as the object nears the Sun — or another star, presumably — and heats up. The heat either sublimates or vaporizes the material in the nucleus at its center, which is many times smaller than the coma that catches our eyes from the ground. While it travels, the coma stretches behind the comet, forming its trademark tail.
3I/ATLAS’s coma has already surprised us in many ways. Its chemistry is strange compared to our own comets, and it appears to have an astonishingly high ratio of carbon dioxide to water. What’s causing the outpouring of water vapor is still unclear. The astronomers speculate that sunlight might be heating up the ice grains released from the nucleus, which then get vaporized into the surrounding coma. READ MORE
NASA Urgent Warning: 3I/ATLAS Images Show Something That Shouldn’t Be Possible
The first images looked ordinary, just another comet-like blur against a starry backdrop. But when NASA sharpened the data, what emerged was so strange that even veteran scientists refused to comment on record. The interstellar visitor known as 3I Atlas, already infamous for bending the rules of orbital mechanics, has revealed something no natural object should ever display. Hidden within the latest high-resolution captures are patterns, structures, and behaviors that seem engineered — not random. And if these images are real, they could change everything we thought we knew about the universe.
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The post Scientists Baffled As To Why Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Is Spewing Water At The Rate Of 88 Pounds Per Second Like A Firehose At Full Blast appeared first on Now The End Begins.