After more than a month of official silence, NASA is poised to finally unveil the true nature of the mysterious interstellar visitor known as 3I/ATLAS. The space agency has announced a major press conference for tomorrow, where it will share unprecedented images captured by its fleet of spacecraft and telescopes.
The Long-Awaited Revelation
The press conference is scheduled for 15:00 EST (20:00 GMT) and will feature never-before-seen observations gathered during the object's close pass of Mars. These crucial images were collected by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and other assets as 3I/ATLAS made its closest approach to the Red Planet on October 3, passing within just 19 million miles (30 million kilometres).
The delay in releasing these findings was directly caused by the recent US government shutdown, which forced most NASA staff onto furlough and prevented public communication between October 1 and November 12. This unfortunate timing coincided with the prime observation window for astronomers to study the interstellar visitor.
Scientific Consensus Versus Speculation
Despite wild speculation on social media about 3I/ATLAS being an artificial object or even an alien mothership, the scientific community remains confident in its natural origins. Dr Matthew Genge, an expert on comets and meteors from Imperial College London, told the Daily Mail: 'All the evidence so far is consistent with a comet from another planetary system.'
He added his now-famous analogy: 'If it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, and quacks: it is most likely a duck. Or in this case, a comet.'
The object's behaviour has shown several features consistent with comets, including:
- A glowing 'coma' of ionised gas observed by the European Space Agency
- Increased activity as it approached the sun on October 29
- A highly irradiated surface typical of space-borne objects
What to Expect from NASA's Reveal
NASA will stream the announcement live on its website, Amazon Prime, and YouTube, encouraging public participation through the hashtag #AskNASA. Dr Genge anticipates 'higher resolution images showing 3I/ATLAS in more detail than ever before,' though he cautions that comets remain difficult to observe clearly due to their gaseous atmospheres.
Professor March Burchell from the University of Kent told the Daily Mail that details of the object's shape would be particularly valuable, as would observations of the solid icy core known as a nucleus. These new images might also clarify the gas outbursts that have confused alien artefact hunters, which Professor Burchell explains are 'natural phenomena' where 'ice starts to sublimate in jets.'
3I/ATLAS represents only the third interstellar object ever detected by scientists, making these observations particularly significant for understanding objects from beyond our solar system. The comet has now returned into Earth's view after its slingshot around the sun and will make its closest pass of Earth next month at 170 million miles (273 million kilometres) before eventually leaving our solar system.
