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Related papers: Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS: discovery and physica…

200 papers

We investigate the feasibility of a spacecraft mission to conduct a flyby of 3I/ATLAS, the third macroscopic interstellar object discovered on July 1 2025, as it traverses the Solar System. There are both ready-to-launch spacecraft…

The discovery of interstellar comet 2I/Borisov offered the unique opportunity to obtain a detailed analysis of an object coming from another planetary system, and leaving behind material in our interplanetary space. We continuously observed…

Comets are primitive remnants of the early Solar System whose composition offers fundamental clues to their formation and evolution. High-resolution, broad-wavelength spectroscopy is crucial for identifying volatile species and constraining…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-08-06 A. Alvarez-Candal , J. L. Rizos , L. M. Lara , P. Santos-Sanz , P. J. Gutierrez , J. L. Ortiz , N. Morales

Spectral observations of 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1) with JWST/NIRSpec and SPHEREx reveal an extreme CO2 enrichment (CO2/H2O = 7.6+-0.3) that is 4.5 sigma above solar system comet trends and among the highest ever recorded. This unprecedented…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2026-01-13 R. Maggiolo , F. Dhooghe , G. Gronoff , J. de Keyser , G. Cessateur

During October - November 2025, interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, will pass upstream of the Europa Clipper and Hera spacecraft. Here, we identify two potential opportunities for in-situ observations of 3I's ion tail by immersion, facilitated by…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-10-20 Samuel R. Grant , Geraint H. Jones

We report the detection of water activity in the third confirmed interstellar object, 3I/ATLAS, based on ultraviolet imaging with the \emph{Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory}'s Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT). Assuming a reddening of 29\%…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-09-08 Zexi Xing , Shawn Oset , John Noonan , Dennis Bodewits

New periodic comet P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS) located on unstable quasi-Trojan orbit still an interesting object to study in the last years. We present the results of broadband observations of comet P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS) performed at the Sanglokh…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2021-11-29 Serhii Borysenko , Gulchehra Kokhirova , Firuza Rakhmatullaeva

Follow-up imaging observations of the first detected interstellar comet 2I/Borisov are presented, which were carried out with the Schmidt-Teleskop-Kamera at the University Observatory Jena in 11 observing epochs in October and November…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-06-03 M. Mugrauer , R. Bischoff , W. Stenglein , J. Trautmann , B. Baghdasaryan , S. Schlagenhauf

We present a photometric and dynamical study of comet C/2010 U3 (Boattini), which was seen active in prediscovery data as early as 2005 November at a new inbound record heliocentric distance $r_{\rm H} = 25.8$ au. Two outburst events around…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2019-04-17 Man-To Hui , Davide Farnocchia , Marco Micheli

Comet 2I/Borisov, the first unambiguous interstellar comet ever found, was discovered in August 2019 at $\sim3$ au from the Sun on its inbound leg. No pre-discovery detection beyond 3 au has yet been reported, mostly due to the comet's…

We present multi-epoch optical spectroscopy of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS obtained between December 2025 and January 2026 (heliocentric distances 1.8-3.3 au), yielding post-perihelion production rates and mixing ratios for CN, C$_3$,…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2026-05-01 Ruining Zhao , Xiliang Zhang , Bin Yang , Xiangyu Fan , Shu Wang , Yang Huang , Jifeng Liu

The detection of Interstellar Objects passing through the Solar System offers the promise of constraining the physical and chemical processes involved in planetary formation in other extrasolar systems. While the effect of outgassing by…

We report the detection of methanol (CH$_3$OH) toward interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS using the Atacama Compact Array of the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) on UT 2025 August 28, September 18 and 22, and October 1, and of…

The discovery of the third interstellar object (ISO), 3I/ATLAS (`3I'), provides a rare chance to directly observe a small body from another Solar System. Studying its chemistry and dynamics will add to our understanding of how the processes…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-09-03 Matthew J. Hopkins , Rosemary C. Dorsey , John C. Forbes , Michele T. Bannister , Chris J. Lintott , Brayden Leicester

The Solar Wind ANisotropies (SWAN) all-sky hydrogen Lyman-alpha camera on the Solar and Heliosphere Observatory (SOHO) observed the hydrogen coma of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, also called C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), beginning on November 6, 2025,…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2026-01-19 M. R. Combi , T. Mâkinen , J. -L. Bertaux , E. Quemerais , S. Ferron , R. Lallement , W. Schmidt

The third interstellar object to be discovered, 3I/ATLAS, has a unique and continually unfolding story to tell about its nature and origin as it is monitored by telescopes on Earth, orbiting Earth and around the Solar System. Previous…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2026-01-22 Adam Hibberd , T. Marshall Eubanks , Andreas Hein

In this work, we present the results of an observational study of 2I/Borisov carried out with the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) and the 3.6-m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), both telescopes located at the Roque de Los Muchachos…

Comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) reached perihelion at 0.33 au on 2025 October 8. Daily monitoring by the LCO Outbursting Objects Key Project revealed a major activity increase between November 2 and 4, accompanied by rapid changes in coma…

Observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS at 3.8 au show an elongated coma similar to a cometary tail but pointing in the direction of the Sun, possibly the first instance of this type of anti-tail which is not a result of perspective. We…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-12-17 Eric Keto , Abraham Loeb

We report results based on mid-infrared photometry of comet 103P/Hartley 2 taken during May 4-13, 2010 (when the comet was at a heliocentric distance of 2.3 AU, and an observer distance of 2.0 AU) by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer…