NASA announced the exact date on which comet 3I/ATLAS will make its closest pass to Earth. This event, expected by the scientific community, will occur on Friday December 19when the celestial body is located 270 million kilometers of the planetthe shortest distance recorded so far. This value is equivalent to 1.8 times the separation between the Earth and the Sun, according to the space agency.
between the November 2 and 25, 2025he Jupiter Icy Moons Explorerbelonging to the European Space Agency (ESA), will analyze the interstellar object using a series of specialized instruments. The most recent images released by the US space agency and other scientific organizations show in great detail part of its structure composed of dust and gas, which raises new questions about its composition.
He Neils Gehrels Swift Observatory NASA identified the presence of hydroxyl gas (OH)a chemical fingerprint of water, inside comet 3I/ATLAS. The physics professor at Auburn University in the United States, Dennis Bodewitsexplained: “When we detect water or even its weak ultraviolet echo, OH, in an interstellar comet, we are reading a note sent from another planetary system”.
He hydroxyl gas (OH) It is a key element to identify the presence of water in interstellar space. This molecule is created when the Sun’s ultraviolet rays break down water molecules (H₂O) into hydrogen atoms and hydroxyl radicals.
The discovery could change our understanding of the formation of planets. According to astrophysicists, each molecule of this comet acts as a chemical message that travels through time. Along these lines, they maintained that “evidence that organic matter and water can be formed and even preserved outside the Sun”.
The most recent research published in The Astrophysical Letter Diary (The Astrophysical Journal Letters) support this chemical peculiarity. Specialists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration concluded that “this early degassing could be caused by the heating of small ice grains on the surface of the cometary nucleus under the effect of solar radiation, even at great distances.”
