Interstellar comet 3I/Atlas is fast zooming towards the Sun. Meanwhile, our star is waking up and becoming active. The Sun will soon be raging in its current solar cycle and will release a coronal mass ejection (CME), which is expected to collide with 3I/Atlas. Will the whiplash affect the comet in any way? Scientists are intrigued to see if it does. This interstellar visitor is the third one after ‘Oumuamua and Comet Borisov. Its trajectory shows that it is coming from outside our solar system, has a dusty coma and now also has a tail after weeks of absence. Latest data on its motion gathered by the Minor Planet Centre, the International Astronomical Union, shows that 3I/Atlas has a nucleus that runs for over 5.6 kilometres. It is also quite large, and supposedly has a mass of over 33 billion tons. Harvard scientist Avi Loeb says that’s an anomaly for a comet. If it were a naturally occurring space rock, then its size suggests that we should have found a hundred thousand interstellar objects smaller than it before stumbling upon 3I/Atlas.
Coming back to the Sun, the comet is expected to bear the brunt. Spaceweather.com reported, citing a new NASA forecast model, that a CME will collide with interstellar comet 3I/Atlas on 25 September 2025, one day up or down. This sets the stage for the first-of-its-kind event as a CME is being released right when only the third interstellar comet is passing through the solar system. When the two smash into each other, the results could be fascinating. Also Read: 3I/Atlas anomalies: Its mass is likely bigger than 33 billion tons, too large to be a comet
What happened when solar plasma slammed a comet?
Solar plasma has slammed into a comet in the past. On April 20, 2007, Comet Encke collided with a CME, and NASA’s STEREO A spacecraft saw it happening. At that time, the CME disturbed the magnetic field around the comet, and its tail broke off. However, it was back within minutes. 3I/Atlas might also have its tail yanked off. Could the CME also change its trajectory? NASA doesn’t think that the comet’s path will be altered by the solar plasma. But a CME collision with the interstellar comet might not be caught by any of the telescopes, as 3I/Atlas will soon go behind the Sun. Also Read: Latest update on 3I/ATLAS: Interstellar comet is getting brighter
Travelling at a speed of 221,000 km/hr, or 60,000 km/s, the alien comet will soon come near Mars. On October 3, it will be at a short distance from the red planet, and this is when several of humanity’s Mars missions might get to take a good look at 3I/Atlas. The CaSSIS camera onboard ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Mars Express’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) are all geared up to snap pictures of this alien visitor when it flies by Mars.
