LONDON (IT BOLTWISE) – Comet 3I/ATLAS has changed significantly from billions of years of cosmic rays, new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope show. These changes shed new light on the nature of interstellar objects and their evolution in space.
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Comet 3I/ATLAS has changed significantly over billions of years due to exposure to cosmic rays. New studies with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have shown that the comet has developed a deep, radiation-shaped crust that no longer resembles the material of its original star system. These findings are based on observations and computer simulations that suggest the comet’s previously documented extreme carbon dioxide enrichments are due to absorbed space radiation during its estimated seven billion-year journey.
Galactic cosmic rays, a form of space radiation made up of high-energy particles outside our solar system, strike carbon monoxide in space and convert it into carbon dioxide. In our solar system, the heliosphere, a giant bubble of solar radiation, protects Earth and its neighbors from much of this cosmic radiation. But in interstellar space, where 3I/ATLAS has spent most of its life, this protection is missing. The authors of the new study conclude that over billions of years, cosmic rays significantly altered the physical state of Comet 3I/ATLAS’s ice down to a depth of about 15 to 20 meters.
These findings, described by the researchers as a paradigm shift for the study of interstellar objects, suggest that objects like Comet 3I/ATLAS are composed primarily of material processed by galactic cosmic rays, rather than pristine material representing the environments in which they formed. In other words, Comet 3I/ATLAS is now a product of its interstellar travel, at least outwardly. The comet is currently in its orbit around the Sun and recently reached its closest point to the Sun.
Since the comet was discovered in July, researchers have used various telescopes to learn as much as possible about 3I/ATLAS. Their results so far suggest that the comet is racing through our solar system at speeds of over 210,000 km/h and has an unusually flat and straight trajectory. The comet may also be the oldest comet ever observed, with one study suggesting it is around three billion years older than our 4.6 billion-year-old solar system. These new findings build on previous work that documented that Comet 3I/ATLAS is rich in CO2, based on the first images of the interstellar visitor taken by JWST in August.
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