{"id":303487,"date":"2025-12-07T16:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T16:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/303487\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T16:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T16:07:09","slug":"new-images-of-interstellar-3i-atlas-comet-with-a-heartbeat-released-by-nasa-news-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/303487\/","title":{"rendered":"New images of Interstellar 3I\/ATLAS comet ‘with a heartbeat’ released by Nasa | News Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"

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More images of our visitor from another star system have been released after it was spotted doing something a bit odd<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3I\/ATLAS <\/a>could be the most famous space<\/a> rock ever (you\u2019ve already forgotten 2024 YR4<\/a>, right?) as it\u2019s making headlines for \u2018pulsing\u2019.<\/p>\n

The giant dirty snowball has been seen dimming and brightening, akin to a \u2018heartbeat\u2019, according to one Harvard astrophysicist.<\/p>\n

Now, Nasa<\/a> and its European counterpart have released new images of 31\/ATLAS ahead of its close encounter with Earth on December 19.<\/p>\n

The Hubble Space Telescope snapped the comet when it was\u00a0about 178 million miles away from Earth on November 30.<\/p>\n

The image <\/a>shows the comet as a white dot, with the glow caused by sunlight bouncing off a plume of gas and dust known as a coma.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"NASA?s
\n\t\tThis blue smudge is a roughly 3.5-mile-wide comet (Picture: Nasa)<\/p>\n

Comets get brighter and brighter as they zip closer to the Sun, as the ice turns into vapour, which the European Space Agency (ESA) captured.<\/p>\n

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice)\u00a0orbiter was just 41 million miles away from 3I\/ATLAS when it took a photo on November 2.<\/p>\n

The ESA wrote<\/a> \u2018Not only do we clearly see the glowing halo of gas surrounding the comet known as its coma, we also see a hint of two tails.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"
\n\t\tThe ESA said the comet has \u2018two tails\u2019 (Picture: European Space Agency)<\/p>\n

\u2018The comet\u2019s \u201cplasma tail\u201d \u2013 made up of electrically charged gas, stretches out towards the top of the frame. <\/p>\n

\u2018We may also be able to see a fainter \u201cdust tail\u201d \u2013 made up of tiny solid particles \u2013 stretching to the lower left of the frame.\u2019<\/p>\n

Space officials say that as 3I\/ATLAS approaches Earth, these sightings will help them learn more about what this cosmic lump of ice and dirt is.<\/p>\n

\u2018If it\u2019s a heartbeat, then those aliens are really, really, super chill\u2019<\/p>\n

Between the images of glowing smears and barely visible dots, some things the comet has been spotted doing are on the strange side.<\/p>\n

Harvard astrophysicist Dr Avi Loeb said last week that jets are coming from the comet once every 16.16 hours.<\/p>\n

Loeb suggested that this \u2018heartbeat\u2019 is evidence of an alien craft<\/a> manoeuvring around the solar system.<\/p>\n

He did acknowledge that a natural explanation was possible, but said it also might be a way for the object to deliberately manoeuvre.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"This
\n\t\tA Nasa image of the comet taken on November 19, annotated with its trajectory and scale bar (Picture: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/University of Arizona)<\/p>\n

But Dr Matthew Genge, a micrometeorite and cosmic dust specialist at Imperial College London<\/a>, told Metro: \u2018There\u2019s a periodic brightening of the comet. That\u2019s actually nothing particularly unusual.<\/p>\n

\u2018It happens once every 16 hours, so if it\u2019s a heartbeat, then those aliens are really, really, super chill, because that\u2019s incredibly slow.\u2019<\/p>\n

Dr Genge said while he was happy we\u2019re all thinking so much about the comet, the \u2018media frenzy\u2019 around it was \u2018ludicrous\u2019 and there\u2019s still no reason to think it\u2019s anything more than a dirty snowball in space.<\/p>\n

So what is causing the pulsing?<\/p>\n

The main theory is that there could be a particularly volatile patch of ice on its surface, which turns to gas at a low temperature.<\/p>\n

When the comet rotates this patch into the sunlight, it heats up and blasts out dust and gas, also known as jets.<\/p>\n

Dr Genge said we can\u2019t actually see the nucleus \u2013 the solid part of the comet \u2013 because it\u2019s producing so much gas. He added: \u2018It\u2019s like trying to see a white cat in fog.\u2019<\/p>\n

Even if we can\u2019t see the icy patch to prove it, it\u2019s the most likely explanation, as many comets have had this periodic brightening before.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"This
\n\t\tInterstellar comet 3I\/Atlas streaking through space on November 19, seen from Italy (Picture: Gianluca Masi via AP)<\/p>\n

Dr Genge joked: \u2018I would be more impressed if it was brightening periodically and beeping while it did it, because then it might be about to go into reverse.\u2019<\/p>\n

He added: \u2018It just reinforces that it\u2019s behaving like a comet. It looks like a comet, it behaves like a comet\u2026 therefore, it\u2019s most likely a comet.\u2019<\/p>\n

Are interstellar comets like buses?<\/p>\n

Even if 3I\/ATLAS is \u2018just\u2019 a comet, it\u2019s still one thought to be billions of years older than our own star.<\/p>\n

Scientists are excited about the possibility of one day landing on an interstellar comet and examining part of it in a lab, but so far, we have only ever seen three.<\/p>\n

Until the first one, Oumuamua, was spotted in 2017, they were thought to be incredibly rare.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Hubble
\n\t\t3I\/ATLAS seen from the Hubble Telescope on July 21, 2025, when the comet was 277 million miles from Earth, with a teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust (Picture: NASA, ESA, David Jewitt)<\/p>\n

Since then, another two have appeared, indicating they are more common than we realised and we are just getting better at spotting them.<\/p>\n

Dr Genge said three is still not enough to give reliable statistics on how frequently we should expect them to appear. \u2018We\u2019ve all sat waiting for buses, haven\u2019t we? Three can come at once,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

But he added that it does suggest more rocks are thrown out of other planetary systems than we previously assumed.<\/p>\n

At least four more months of speculation<\/p>\n

Once comets pass further from the Sun than the orbit of Jupiter, they tend to become less active and less bright.<\/p>\n

This one is expected to get there around March 16 next year, and it\u2019s a safe bet that it will be eagerly tracked both by astronomers and those who believe the truth is out there.<\/p>\n

Dr Loeb has claimed that 3I\/ATLAS will pass so close to the gas giant that it could \u2018release technological devices as artificial satellites<\/a> of Jupiter\u2019.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Comet
\n\t\tComet 3I\/ATLAS seen on November 22 from an observatory in Extremadura, Spain (Picture: Facebook\/Peter Carson Leigh)<\/p>\n

But it won\u2019t be captured within its orbit to become a permanent visitor. It is expected to pass back on our of our solar system and into outer space.<\/p>\n

However, it was potentially an interaction with another giant planet which initially threw the rock out of its own part of the galaxy.<\/p>\n

\u2018Jupiter is a bit of a bully, and if asteroids<\/a> or comets encounter it, it can do a gravitational slingshot and literally shoot them out of the solar system,\u2019 Dr Genge said. <\/p>\n

\u2018Maybe that [type of interaction] happens more commonly than we previously thought, which would fit with there being quite a few giant planets around other stars.\u2019<\/p>\n

The comet will pass its closest to Earth on December 19, but it will still be very far away \u2013 around 170million miles, or twice the distance of the Sun.<\/p>\n

And after that?<\/p>\n

\u2018When it actually leaves and nothing happens, we\u2019ll stop talking about it,\u2019 Dr Genge said. <\/p>\n

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more stories like this, check our news page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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