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Comet 3I/ATLAS now Heading out of the solar system And into interstellar space, but scientists are still analyzing the data it left behind as it passed through our cosmic neighborhood. A new study, still under review, has revealed a surprising detail: The comet is full of alcohol.
Observations by the ALMA telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert show that the coma of this celestial body is rich in methanol, a type of alcohol common in fuels and solvents. Although methanol is commonly found in comets in the solar system, 3I/Atlas contained Up to four times the typical amount.
According to the study, it is available on arXiv3I/Atlas is the second most methanol-rich comet ever measured, behind the unusual comet C/2016 R2, which was discovered 10 years ago. Parallel investigations also revealed a high abundance of other organic compounds, such as carbon dioxide, iron and nitrogen, reinforcing the idea that this body had an unusual composition.
The combination of excess methanol, a carbon dioxide-dominated coma, and other atypical chemical ratios supports the hypothesis that 3I/Atlas formed in an environment cooler, more irradiated, or chemically distinct from any comet-forming region in the Solar System.
The paper also suggests that 3I/Atlas may belong to the class of hyperactive comets, objects that produce more water vapor than their surface can account for. In these comets, some of the gas comes not from the nucleus, but from ice grains that float in the coma and rise. Researchers suggest so 3I/Atlas released methanol, water, and carbon dioxide From both the nucleus and these ice grains.
In this case, much of the methanol came from detached ice that rose as the comet approached the sun. This behavior is consistent with that of hyperactive comets and reinforces the idea that 3I/Atlas is a normal, extremely cold and chemically complex body, ruling out everything else. Speculation about artificial origin.
Today, the comet is moving away from the solar system at a speed of 60 kilometers per second. It is the third confirmed stellar object in history, but astronomers expect that future searches using new and more advanced instruments will reveal more.