A surprising new photo from Comet 3i/Atlas, taken during last week’s total lunar eclipse, suggests that “interstellar visitors” may turn bright green as they approach the midpoint of their journey through the solar system. If this unexpected transformation is seen, it is likely a result of the comet’s proximity to the Sun, experts say.
3i/Atlas is a roughly 7-mile (11-kilometer) comet originally discovered in early July, zooming beyond Jupiter’s orbit at over 130,000 mph (210,000 km/h). Astronomers quickly realized that superfast objects were not occurring within our universe neighbourhoods, instead passing through on one-way trips. It is probably ejected from a distant star system in the Milky Way and is probably much older than the solar system.
The comet will be trapped in a flyby on Mars next month, reaching its lowest distance from the Sun on October 29th. As interstellar intruders approached the sun, they began to absorb more solar radiation and expel more ice, gas and dust from their core.
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However, on September 7th, astrophotography practitioners Michael Jager and Gerald Leman took new shots of the comet in the dark Namibian sky. These images were taken during the “Blood Moon” total lunar eclipse as the full moon passed through the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow. The resulting photo shows 3i/Atlas in an astonishing emerald shade.
The new image suggests that the comet’s increasing proximity to the sun will “turn green” as new, rarer chemicals are expelled from its core, Spaceweather.com reported. However, it is certainly too early to convey this change, as other photographers and observatory have not seen this change before.
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This is not the first time an astronomer has found a green glow coming from a comet. In recent years, there have been several other emerald ice balls in early 2023, including the appropriate nickname called “Green Comet” C/2022 E3. The explosive “Devil Met” 12p/Ponsbrook was green as it approached the sun in 2024, and Astronomers nominated Swan 25f earlier this year.
The most common cause of this unusual coloring is the presence of “decalbones” in the clouds of ice and gas surrounding comets, known as their comas. Also known as diatom carbon, this molecule is a form of carbon in which two atoms bond. Pure carbon usually exists as a lonely, unattached atom or as a larger structure, such as a diamond.
So far, spectroscopic observations of 3i/Atlas have not detected any decarvone in comet coma state. However, a representative from Spaceweather.com may have been trapped under a layer of ice that the molecules have been melted by solar radiation. “Or the green glow could be from other mixtures of gas or dust.
Another explanation is famous for studying interstellar objects that could be a sign of alien technology, Harvard University astronomer Avi Loeb famously. In his personal blog, he writes that colour can be caused by cyanide. It was discovered in comet coma by a very large telescope in the Atacama Desert, Chile, in late August.
As a result, more photos and observations will be needed in the coming weeks to see new colours and reveal what may be causing them.
Unfortunately, comets pass through the sun on the other side of Earth, and quickly disappear from view. It reappears a few months later, shortly before it reaches its closest point to Earth in December.
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