‘Alien spaceship’ 3I/ATLAS makes historical past with ‘most excessive orbit’ ever seen
The 3I/ATLAS spaceship has stunned scientists by blazing through our solar system on the most extreme, stretched-out orbit ever recorded, confirming it comes from far beyond the sun
The mysterious interstellar object, which has been dubbed 3I/ATLAS, has made history by following the most extreme and stretched orbit ever recorded. The discovery reportedly confirms that it comes from far beyond our solar system.
3I/ATLAS has stunned astronomers by blazing through our solar system on the most wildly stretched orbit ever observed, smashing all previous records for orbital eccentricity. Its dramatic trajectory is a cosmic fingerprint, confirming 3I/ATLAS as a true interstellar traveller.
The observation is significant because most objects in our solar system move around the sun in paths that are shaped like neat circles or gentle ovals.
However, 3I/ATLAS is different as it’s traveling on a path that is much more stretched out – almost like a very long, thin oval. This is the most stretched-out orbit scientists have ever seen.
Because its path is so unusual, astronomers know that 3I/ATLAS didn’t come from our solar system. Instead, it’s an interstellar visitor, meaning it came from somewhere far beyond the sun and is just passing through before heading back out into deep space.
As telescopes track its every move, measuring speed, brightness, and composition, researchers reportedly hope to unlock secrets about the building blocks of other worlds, and perhaps even discover clues about how planetary systems form and evolve far from our own sun.
According to NASA, eccentricity measures how much the shape of Earth’s orbit departs from a perfect circle. Its website states that these variations affect the distance between Earth and the sun.
This comes after the mysterious interstellar object was observed zooming past the sun, sparking alien spacecraft theories by a Harvard astrophysicist. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb pointed out that 3I/ATLAS displayed non-gravitational acceleration and appeared “bluer than the sun” as it passed by.
NASA’s recent observations detected this unusual acceleration, which could be explained by intense outgassing typical of a comet, potentially causing the object to shed half its mass and leave a massive trail of debris.
However, in a recent paper, Loeb argued that both the acceleration and the object’s striking blue hue might actually hint at an artificial origin, possibly an engineered spacecraft, the Daily Star previously reported. He wrote in a post on Medium: “Alternatively, the non-gravitational acceleration might be the technological signature of an internal engine.
“This might also explain the report on 3I/ATLAS getting bluer than the Sun. For a natural comet this blue colour is very surprising.
“Dust is expected to redden the scattered sunlight, and the surface of 3I/ATLAS is expected to be ~20 times colder than the 5,800 degrees Kelvin at the photosphere of the Sun, resulting in it having a redder colour than the Sun. The blue appearance at perihelion is a ninth anomaly in the list of unexpected properties of 3I/ATLAS.
“It could potentially be explained by a hot engine or a source of artificial light. However, it might instead be a signature of ionised carbon monoxide for a natural comet.”
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