What is 3I/ATLAS up to? NASA detects sinister anomaly in interstellar object in precovery data
Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS unexpectedly brightened up even before it was officially observed. NASA's TESS spotted it in May, two months before Atlas. Within a month, its brightness shot up five times. Scientists say this is not common with comets. Could this be another anomaly?
Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is behaving in an unexpected manner
Scientists have noticed something strange about 3I/ATLAS. The interstellar object has become extremely bright, beyond the parameters of the laws of the universe. This revelation was made by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) after it detected the object in May, two months before it was officially imaged by Atlas.
3I/ATLAS was deemed to be from outer space after Atlas captured it
After Atlas captured the interstellar object travelling at 221,000 km/hr through the solar system in July, they could not believe what they were seeing. Its trajectory showed it wasn't from the solar system and was a visitor from outside. However, this was not the first time 3I/ATLAS was seen. They just didn't know about it.
3I/ATLAS was seen by NASA's TESS on May 7
While combing through data from other telescopes to see for past traces of 3I/ATLAS, they came across TESS's observations from May. New images of 3I/ATLAS, dating back to May 7, have been revealed by TESS. The discovery also uncovered something sinister.
3I/ATLAS showed new anomaly - It became extremely bright, an abnormal thing for comets
This data shows that between May 7 and June 3, 3I/ATLAS suddenly became five times brighter. This should not have happened, as per cosmic rules. Scientists say that they expect the object to brighten as it comes nearer, but based on the distance it had travelled in this period, the brightness should have gone up by only 1.5 times.
Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile had also seen 3I/ATLAS
TESS came into the picture because 10 days before the ATLAS asteroid warning system observed 3I/ATLAS on July 1, astronomers noticed that the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile had detected it 10 days earlier. So they started seeing historical data from other telescopes.
3I/atlas precovery let scientists learn more about the interstellar object
They found that TESS had detected the interstellar object long before it was officially discovered. Researchers stacked multiple photos of the object to make it bright enough to be easily detectable. When they went back by almost two months, the "precovery" allowed for a better estimate of 3I/ATLAS's orbit.
3I/ATLAS showed an abnormality - If it is a comet, then this should not have happened
This confirmed that 3I/ATLAS had come from outside our solar system. They also noticed there was a sudden and rapid increase in its brightness at a distance six times greater than the Earth's distance from the Sun. This was not normal for a comet. But some think that the object is big and rotating, leading it to present this way.
Harvard scientist Avi Loeb claims 3I/ATLAS is not a comet but alien technology
This is another one of many anomalies noticed about the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS. Harvard scientist Avi Loeb has already pointed to several features of the object to claim that it is not a naturally occurring object, but a piece of alien technology that could be coming to attack Earth.
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