Also, the findings revealed that the high carbon dioxide levels in 3I/ATLAS’s coma suggest its core is naturally rich in carbon dioxide. 3I/ATLAS, discovered on July 1 by the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey telescope, is only the third-ever object found passing through our solar system.
The other two interstellar intruders were 1I/’Oumuamua, discovered in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, detected in 2019. The investigation of 3i/atlas was aimed at uncovering characteristics including its size, physical properties, and, crucially, its chemical makeup, according to Space.com. The probe by astronomers has been described in a preprint paper. It suggests that the team studying comets like this from other star systems helps to better understand what the conditions were like in those systems as they were forming, according to Space.com.
The results from the study can then be compared to what scientists have understood about the conditions around the sun 4.6 billion years ago, when the planets, asteroids, and comets of the solar system were undergoing formation.
What happens when comets approach the sun?
When comets get close to the sun, the frozen materials inside them turn directly from solids into gases due to its heat. This leads to a process called “outgassing,” as gases escape and the characteristic tail and halo, or “coma,” of a comet is created. Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is outgassing as it gets near the sun, and astronomers have used the JWST and its NIRSpec instrument to identify carbon dioxide, water, water ice, carbon monoxide, and the smelly gas carbonyl sulfide in its coma.
One thing that unexpectedly occurred was the maximum ratio of carbon dioxide to water. It was the highest ever observed in a comet. This occurrence could possibly reveal additional details about the conditions in which 3I/ATLAS formed.
What does the abundance of carbon dioxide in 3I/ATLAS indicate?
The abundance of carbon dioxide in the coma of 3I/ATLAS could indicate that the interstellar comet is intrinsically rich in carbon dioxide. This could imply that the comet contains ices that were exposed to much higher levels of radiation in comparison to the comets in the solar system.
The team of astronomers alternatively suggested that this high carbon dioxide content could signal that the comet may have formed in a specific site called the “carbon dioxide ice line” within the swirling cloud of matter, or “protoplanetary disk,” that surrounded its stellar parent, Space.com reported.
This is described as the point at which the temperature around an infant star, or “protostar,” drops low enough to allow carbon dioxide to change from a gas to a solid. Furthermore, the low abundance of water vapor in the coma of 3I/ATLAS could indicate that there is something within the comet that is inhibiting heat from penetrating the icy core of the comet. This would hinder the amount of water transforming from ice into gas relative to the transformation rate of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.
