How to see ‘alien spaceship’ 3I/ATLAS your self because it makes ‘closest approach’
The 14-billion-year-old comet has travelled through space changing colour from red to green to gold, and as Earth prepares for its closest brush on December 19, scientists say it could split apart
3I/ATLAS will make its “closest approach” to Earth this Friday, and anyone will be able to see it – you’ll just need a nifty little telescope. The mysterious interstellar comet has been baffling experts since July this year as it hurtles through our Solar System.
According to NASA, later this week 3I/ATLAS “will be about 170 million miles away” – which is more than 700 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. But, the US space agency explains, you still might be able to catch a glimpse of the intergalactic visitor.
NASA wrote: “At this distance, skywatchers looking east to northeast in the early pre-dawn morning could catch the comet right under Regulus, a star at the heart of the constellation Leo, the lion.
“To see the comet before it leaves our vicinity, you’ll need to be looking through a telescope with an aperture of at least 30 centimetres.”
If you don’t have this exact sort of telescope knocking about, NASA helpfully suggests you “look for observatories and skywatching events in your local area”.
Whilst numerous researchers confirm 3I/ATLAS is a comet, others suggest something far more extraterrestrial is occurring. Avi Loeb recently highlighted how the object had shifted from red to green and maintains there’s a connection between the object and alien life.
Interstellar comets were previously considered extremely uncommon, but following the first confirmed example – 1I/Oumuamua which was discovered in 2017 – two additional ones have been detected, accounting for the ‘3’ in the current cosmic traveller’s designation.
For those fortunate enough to witness it, the extraordinary visitor will present a captivating spectacle. The peculiar chemical makeup of 3I/ATLAS has triggered its colour changes as solar heat affects it, originally identified as a dim red object, it has undergone a remarkable transformation whilst traversing our Solar System.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, geophysicist Stefan Burns reveals: “The evidence suggests that 3I/ATLAS was once probably a short-period comet around its host star and it was heavily thermally processed from hundreds or even thousands of orbits.
“That’s why it came in with a very dark red colour with a bunch of organics after its long journey through interstellar space .”
However, as solar energy bombarded the cosmic wanderer’s surface, dormant chemical processes sparked dramatic transformations in the enormous object’s appearance. Stefan reveals: “it started glowing green, even a little blue at times.
“And now with that final eruptive phase having come to an end, it seems it’s now going back to a dust-dominated colour, but now it’s glowing gold as it moves into the constellation of Leo over the next couple of weeks.”
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