Interest is reignited interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS visiting the Solar System a few days after its passage to perihelion (the point of maximum proximity to the Sun): the latest images in fact show a unusual queuing systemin which they are distinctly noticeable at least 4 jets in different directions in addition to aanti-taili.e. an apparent “tail” directed towards the Sun. The images of astronomers Jäger, Rhemann and Prosperi captured on the night of November 8th, in which this suggestive behavior is clearly visible, are widely circulated.
The passage to perihelion, a 1.36 astronomical units from our star (1 astronomical unit corresponds to the average Earth-Sun distance, 150 million km) significantly increased the comet’s activity: the injection of solar energy increased the rate of sublimation of volatile compounds (mainly carbon monoxide, water and carbon dioxide) resulting in a increase in the brightness of the hair cometary (of at least 3 magnitudes) and the formation of jets.
Multiple queues and anti-queuing they are not an absolute novelty for a cometbut they are quite rare and very interesting phenomena because they provide a large amount of information on the structure of the cometary nucleus and its interaction with the environment of the internal Solar System.
The fact that the emission of water is increased by approximately 10 timesfor example, indicates a structured core with one layer of water ice beneath a surface crust composed of CO and CO2: the passage to the perihelion caused the partial destruction of the external layer causing the activation of the innermost one. From this point of view, the multiple directions of the jets are explained by different “breaking points” of the outer crust combined with the rotation of the cometary nucleus. We must also take into account the fact that the comet was hit at the end of September by acoronal mass ejectionthat is, a violent emission of plasma coming from the Sun, which certainly contributed to the complex structure of the jets. In short, the structure of this comet is complex due to the fact that it is large and is crossing the inner Solar System at a time of intense solar activity.
Even theanti-tail It’s something I’ve never seen before. It is a phenomenon that is observed when Earth is in the comet’s orbital plane. As solar heat breaks up the outer layers of the comet’s nucleus, finer dust is pushed backwards by the solar wind, while larger debris can form a faint disk around the comet: when seen from an “edge-on” perspective, the front of this structure appears just like an anti-tail preceding the comet.
In conclusion, the passage to perihelion made the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS even more interesting from a scientific point of view. Unfortunately this celestial body has now become subject of misinformation and conspiracy theories various due to rumors that would like to interpret it as an alien spaceship. The Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loebpromoter of this conspiracy theory, has recently added more recently in his blog on the platform Mediumclaiming that the numerous jets could be material expelled from the thrusters of this phantom alien technology. This narrative has also sparked the imagination of characters with great power of influence, such as Elon Muskwhich in a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience – the most followed podcast in the world – said that if 3I/ATLAS were a spaceship it would have “the potential to destroy a continent”. Naturally the opinion of the entire astronomical community is that none of this is true and that 3I/ATLAS is certainly an anomalous but completely natural comet.
