ANSA VERIFIED – 3I/Atlas, l’intruso del Sistema solare, e’ davvero una cometa?
3I/ATLAS showed features never observed before, not only the large amount of methanol, suggesting that it formed in a very cold environment, probably in the furthest reaches of our Galaxy, thousands of light years away.
In contrast to ‘homegrown’ comets, where water dominates, in 3I/ATLAS the main component is CO₂, the simultaneous abundance of methanol and cyanide in the canopy indicates a different chemistry from that of solar comets, a kind of identity card of another star system.
From the many, even simultaneous observations, it could be seen that it emits jets of gas oriented in an unusual way, in unexpected directions, perhaps due to the rotation or irregular structure of the core. In short, it sprays gas from all sides and this is unusual.
3I/ATLAS shows a peculiar dust formation that appears to be pointing towards the Sun, an anti-tail, instead of in the opposite direction. This phenomenon is well known in astronomy, but in this case it has exceptional dimensions, on the order of hundreds of thousands of kilometres. This is why Avi Loeb has always put forward the idea that 3I/ATLAS was moving with a type of engine unknown to us, but the idea has not gathered any supporters, except for himself, perhaps in spasmodic search of popularity.
It was an almost unique opportunity: only three interstellar objects have been directly observed in the history of astronomy, and we have witnessed all three in recent years thanks to the advances in instrumentation that have been developed on Earth and in space. With the new generation of instruments, we will probably see many of them and be able to study them comfortably to understand systems other than our own.