Global NewsNASA shares images interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, says carbon dioxide to water ratio larger than usual

First observed earlier this year, the 3I/ATLAS comet is only the third object ever identified as entering our solar system from elsewhere in the galaxy. While it poses no threat to Earth and will get no closer than 170 million miles from Earth, the comet flew within 19 million miles of Mars in early October.

Spacecraft across the solar system, as well as ground-based observatories, have been able to observe 3I/ATLAS as it passes through our celestial neighbourhood and study how the comet behaves.

While sharing the images, Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA’s acting director of its Astrophysics Division, remarked that “the comet has a nucleus rich in carbon dioxide, as well as the presence of water ice.”

“Now, the ratio; like we cannot just say that these things are there, we can also say what’s the ratio of carbon dioxide to water and we now know it’s larger than what we usually see in solar system objects—but there’s a lot of natural explanations for that.”

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