{"id":232284,"date":"2025-10-29T15:44:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T15:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/232284\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T15:44:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T15:44:12","slug":"major-breakthrough-at-interstellar-comet-as-scientists-make-unexpected-detection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/232284\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Major breakthrough’ at interstellar comet as scientists make unexpected detection"},"content":{"rendered":"

A NASA space telescope has made a surprising discovery at comet 3I\/ATLAS<\/a> that’s got a team of astronomers rather excited.<\/p>\n

The discovery is said to be a major breakthrough in understanding how comets evolve.<\/p>\n

More about comet 3I\/ATLAS<\/p>\n

\"ImageCredit: NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)<\/p>\n

It’s also a scientific breakthrough because of exactly where the comet was when the team made the discovery.<\/p>\n

And it has major implications for our understanding of how planets form across the Galaxy, and whether they could ever host life.<\/p>\n

\"AA single frame showing the location of comet 3I\/ATLAS when it was discovered on 1 July 2025. Credit: ATLAS\/University of Hawaii\/NASA
\nThe fingerprints of comet chemistry<\/p>\n

Comet 3I\/ATLAS was discovered on 1 July 2025, and since then, astronomers have been doing everything they can to learn as much about it as they can.<\/p>\n

That’s because, unlike other comets, 3I\/ATLAS doesn’t orbit the Sun. It’s an interstellar comet, and one of only three we’ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

This means it entered our Solar System from elsewhere in the Galaxy, and will eventually exit it. When it does leave our Solar System, it will be gone forever.<\/p>\n

\"DiagramDiagram showing the orbit of comet 3I\/ATLAS. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/p>\n

3I\/ATLAS is thought to be at least 7 billion years old, making it likely twice as old as Earth, and the oldest comet we’ve ever seen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s a primordial relic from a distant star system so, understandably, astronomers are keen to study it in detail while it’s here.<\/p>\n

Scientists have even been able to get Mars rovers and orbiters to look at 3I\/ATLAS<\/a> while it’s hidden from Earth, as it travels close to the Sun.<\/p>\n

A team of astronomers at Auburn University in Alabama, USA, managed to point NASA\u2019s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory at the comet, and a newly-released study using that data shows it detected hydroxyl (OH) gas, a chemical fingerprint of water.<\/p>\n

The space-based telescope was able to spot a faint ultraviolet glow that ground observatories couldn’t see, because it was able to capture light that never reaches Earth’s surface.<\/p>\n

\"CometComet 3I\/ATLAS captured by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on Gemini South at Cerro Pach\u00f3n in Chile, 27 August 2025. Credit: International Gemini Observatory\/NOIRLab\/NSF\/AURA\/Shadow the Scientist. Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory\/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage\/NSF NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)
\nWhy this is a big deal<\/p>\n

The team behind the detection say it’s a major breakthrough in understanding how interstellar comets evolve.<\/p>\n

When looking at comets that originated in our Solar System, scientists analyse water to measure how active that comet is.<\/p>\n

They study how heat from the Sun causes the release of frozen gases as the comet gets closer to the inner Solar System.<\/p>\n

Finding the same signal in an interstellar object means astronomers can begin to study 3I\/ATLAS with the same criteria they use to study Solar System comets.<\/p>\n

This, by extension, is a chance to begin studying the chemistry of planetary systems beyond our Sun.<\/p>\n

\"ImageImage of comet 3I\/ATLAS in the Martian sky, as seen by ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, 3 October 2025. The spacecraft’s camera was trained on the fast-moving comet, which is why background stars appear as streaks. Credit: ESA\/TGO\/CaSSIS
\nA strange location<\/p>\n

The team behind the detection are particularly interested in where the water activity is occurring.<\/p>\n

Swift detected OH when 3I\/ATLAS was nearly three times farther from the Sun than Earth.<\/p>\n

That should have been far beyond the distance from the Sun where water ice on a comet\u2019s surface would normally turn into a gas.<\/p>\n

In fact, the team measured a water-loss rate of about 40 kg per second. At that sort of distance from the Sun, most Solar System comets are relatively quiet.<\/p>\n

This strong ultraviolet signal from 3I\/ATLAS suggests something else is going on.<\/p>\n

One explanation is that sunlight is heating small icy grains released from the comet’s nucleus, allowing them to vaporise and feed the surrounding cloud of gas.<\/p>\n

\"NASA\u2019sNASA\u2019s Swift Ultraviolet\/Optical Telescope (UVOT) observed interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS during in July and August 2025. Left panel shows visible-light. Right shows ultraviolet. The faint glow of hydroxyl (OH) traces water vapour can be seen escaping from the comet. Credit: Dennis Bodewits, Auburn University<\/p>\n

Interstellar comets can tell scientists a lot about the chemistry involved in planet formation beyond our Solar System.<\/p>\n

These deep-space interlopers also reveal how the building blocks of comets vary dramatically from one star system to another.<\/p>\n

That hints at the potential diversity in planet-forming regions across the Galaxy, and the likelihood that distance planets could host life.<\/p>\n

\"Artist'sArtist’s impression of NASA’s Gehrels Swift Observatory. Credit: NASA
\nHow they made the detection<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is equipped with a 30cm telescope, which most amateur astronomers will likely tell you isn’t particularly big.<\/p>\n

But Swift’s location above Earth’s atmosphere means it can see ultraviolet wavelengths that are almost completely absorbed before reaching the ground.<\/p>\n

This enabled the team to observe comet 3I\/ATLAS within weeks of discovery, before it grew too faint or too close to the Sun to study.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe James Webb Space Telescope observed interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS on 6 August 2025 with its Near-Infrared Spectrograph instrument. Credit: NASA\/JWST<\/p>\n

“When we detect water \u2013 or even its faint ultraviolet echo, OH \u2013 from an interstellar comet, we\u2019re reading a note from another planetary system,” says Dennis Bodewits, professor of physics at Auburn.<\/p>\n

“It tells us that the ingredients for life\u2019s chemistry are not unique to our own.”<\/p>\n

“Every interstellar comet so far has been a surprise,” says Zexi Xing, postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study.<\/p>\n

“[Previous interstellar comets] Oumuamua was dry, Borisov was rich in carbon monoxide, and now ATLAS is giving up water at a distance where we didn\u2019t expect it.<\/p>\n

“Each one is rewriting what we thought we knew about how planets and comets form around stars.”<\/p>\n

3I\/ATLAS has faded from view but will become observable again after mid-November 2025, offering another chance to track how its activity evolves as it approaches the Sun.<\/p>\n

Read the full paper via the Astrophysical Journal Letters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A NASA space telescope has made a surprising discovery at comet 3I\/ATLAS that’s got a team of astronomers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-232284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}