There comet 3I Atlas continues to attract the interest of the scientific community, but not only, since some of its unusual characteristics have led some researchers to hypothesize that it could be a large unidentified flying object: what is certain, at the moment, is that its 45 kilometers in diameter and the unpredictable nature of its movements have pushed NASA to activate the planetary defense protocol for the first time in our history.
Since its discovery, which took place last July via the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (Atlas) surveillance system, scientists have been amazed by the peculiarities of what was immediately defined as a “comet”. Spectrometric analyses, for example, have made it possible to identify traces of a nickel compound completely unknown even to the most expert astrophysicists. “We have never seen anything like this: the chemical emissions do not match any known pattern”NASA was in fact forced to declare.
Not only that, given that it is above all the baptized phenomenon that leaves us astounded “antique”i.e. a trail of particles oriented in the direction of the Sun and not in the opposite direction and away from our Star as generally happens. An anomaly that overturns the laws of solar radiation pressure and which has given rise to some doubts about the real nature of 3I Atlas.
Add to this the fact that his movements and sudden accelerations and unusual for a comet, as it is still believed, do not fit into the known gravitational models. So much so that, despite being 3I Atlas 240 million kilometers from Earth, with an orbit inside that of Mars, and apparently not constituting a danger for us, the International Asteroid Warning Network, the main body dealing with planetary defense, has decided to start a special surveillance protocol between November 2025 and January 2026. It is the first time in history that the IAWN, a control system that relies on a dense network of terrestrial telescopes and spatial, activate this defense protocol.
“All the data collected so far indicates that it is a natural body, albeit one of a kind”wanted to reassure the Manager
scientist for small bodies of the Solar System of the NASA Planetary Sciences Division Thomas Statler, “but his behavior remains fascinating and we will continue to observe him with the utmost attention.”