by Astronomers organize a welcome mat for a newly identified visitor from beyond our solar system.
The object viewed as a comet is only the third, the always confirmed interstellar visitor that fits through our cosmic neighborhood.
The comet is called 3i/Atlas, according to NASA there is no danger to the earth for earth and remains about 150 million miles away.
The Interstellare Comet was first discovered on Tuesday by the Asteroid terrestrial Impact Last Alert System (Atlas) in Rio Hurtado, Chile. The Telescope survey financed by NASA, which actually consists of two telescopes in Hawaii, one in Chile and a fourth in South Africa Soll several times a night scan the entire sky and search for asteroids that could be a threat to the earth.
The researchers confused archive data from three different Atlas telescopes and the Zwicky Transient facility in the Palomar Observatory in California and found corresponding observations that were confirmed to confirm the discovery. According to NASA, other telescopes all over the world have also joined the efforts.
“The planetary defenders of the ESA observe the provisional object known as #a11pl3z and are currently using telescopes all over the world,” said the European space agency on Wednesday in a position on X.
Interstellar Comet 3i/Atlas. (David Rankin / Saguaro Observatory)
The comet is currently about 420 million miles away and quickly moves from the direction of the Sagittarius constellation, NASA said in a blog post about the discovery. Sagittarius is an outstanding constellation in the southern hemisphere, which indicates the center of the Milky Way.
The agency said that 3I/Atlas will swing the next October 30 of the sun and will come by about 130 million miles or only in the orbit of Mars.
NASA said that the comet should be visible to ground -based observatories until September, so that scientists should absorb times for the cosmic intruder, including its size. After September, 3i/Atlas will be too close to the sun to observe with telescopes, but the object is expected to be visible again in early December if it appears on the other side of the sun.
The coming months offer a rare opportunity to study a heavenly tourist from beyond our solar system. The first confirmed interstellar object was discovered in 2017 by the Pan-Starrs1 telescope of the University of Hawaii. According to NASA, the rocky object called Oumuamua (Hawaiian for “a messenger from the first arrival”) has extended a reddish color and is extended like a cigar.
The only other known interstellar object that has completed a visit is 21/Borisov, a comet that was discovered in 2019 by an amateur astronome named Gennady Borisov.
This article was originally published on nbcnews.com
