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Related papers: Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS: Evidence for Galactic…

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We describe the physical characteristics of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, discovered on 2025 July 1 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System. The comet has eccentricity, $e$ $\simeq$ 6.08 and velocity at infinity, v$_{\infty}$…

We report the detection of the nucleus of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, using a nucleus extraction technique on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations taken between December 2025 and January 2026. The product of the V-band geometric…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2026-02-16 Man-To Hui , David Jewitt , Max J. Mutchler , Jessica Agarwal , Yoonyoung Kim

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…

Based on the occurrence rates implied by the discoveries of 1I/`Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov, the forthcoming Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) should detect $\ge1$ interstellar objects every year (Hoover et al. 2021). We…

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

Comet C/2025 N1 or 3I/ATLAS is the third confirmed interstellar object. It has passed perihelion on 2025 October 29, and is currently on a path to leave the solar system. During its outbound journey, it will pass close to Jupiter at a…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2026-01-28 Goldy Ahuja , Shashikiran Ganesh

Time-domain photometric monitoring is essential for characterizing cometary evolution, particularly for rare interstellar objects with limited observing opportunities. We aimed to characterize the pre-perihelion photometric behavior and…

We present independent polarimetric observations of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, including the first near-infrared polarimetric measurements. Using imaging polarimeters, we measured the degree of linear polarization from the visible RC…

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

In December-2025, the NASA SPHEREx spacecraft re-observed ISO 3I/ATLAS post-perihelion, finding a much more active object compared to August-2025 SPHEREx pre-perihelion observations, with marked evidence for development into an cometary…

Emission lines of FeI and NiI are commonly found in the coma of Solar System comets, even at large heliocentric distances. These atoms are most likely released from the surface of the comet's nucleus or from a short-lived parent. These…

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…

3I/ATLAS is an interstellar object whose activity provides critical insights into its composition and origin. However, due to its orbital geometry, the object is too close to the Sun near perihelion to be observed from the ground, and…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2026-04-07 Hanjie Tan , Xiaoran Yan , Jian-Yang Li

The recent discovery of the third interstellar object (3I/ATLAS) expands the known census from two to three and significantly improves statistical inferences regarding the underlying galactic population. In this paper, we argue that…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-08-08 Aster G. Taylor , Darryl Z. Seligman

We present a coarsely-sampled map of the region |l|<=2 degrees, |b|<=0.1 degrees in the 492 GHz 3P1-->3P0 fine structure transition of neutral carbon, observed with the Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory (AST/RO). The…

A previous study suggests that the observed exponential character of the surface brightness profiles in the coma around the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS at 4 au can be explained as a consequence of the destruction of the icy scattering…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2026-05-08 Eric Keto , Abraham Loeb

3I/ATLAS was discovered on UT 2025 July 1 and joins a limited but growing population of detected $\sim10^2-10^3$ m scale interstellar objects. In this paper we report photometric observations of 3I/ATLAS from the nights of UT 2025 July 3,…

The discovery of the first active interstellar object 2I/Borisov provides an unprecedented opportunity to study planetary formation processes in another planetary system. In particular, spectroscopic observations of 2I allow us to constrain…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-01-08 C. Opitom , A. Fitzsimmons , E. Jehin , Y. Moulane , O. Hainaut , K. J. Meech , B. Yang , C. Snodgrass , M. Micheli , J. V. Keane , Z. Benkhaldoun , J. T. Kleyna

To investigate the interstellar medium (ISM) and Galactic cosmic rays (CRs) in the solar neighborhood, we analyzed ${\gamma}$-ray data by Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) for five nearby molecular cloud regions. Our data includes the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-06-23 Tsunefumi Mizuno , Katsuhiro Hayashi , Hinako Ochi , Igor V. Moskalenko , Elena Orlando , Andrew W. Strong