Astronomers have been observing 3I/ATLAS since July, when it was discovered to be zipping towards our solar system with extreme speed. Most observations so far have found that it appears to be a fairly regular comet, though there have been some puzzling features hinting at an exotic origin.
Martin Cordiner @NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland and his colleagues have now obtained the most detailed observations of the comet yet using the @jameswebb_nasa
It turns out 3I/ATLAS’s coma contains an extremely large amount of carbon dioxide compared to water, at a ratio of 8 to 1. This is 16 times higher than typical comets from our own solar system at this distance from the sun.
What could this suggest about the comets origin?
Learn more ➤ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2493867-jwst-gets-a-closer-look-at-interstellar-comet-3i-atlas/
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