That image could either be the end of 3I/Atlas or proof that it is not a natural object , the amount of material Atlas has been outgassing in the 3 months we've been observing it plus the structural damage the outgassing would caused added to the stresses and strains of slingshotting the Sun could and probably should cause it to break up , unless the picture posted by Kenzo o shows its thrusters firing up of course.
Latest post from Avi Loeb regarding that picture.
If 3I/Atlas has broken up it will remain a happy memory of an interesting few months but if it hasn't the mystery remains and Atlas will surely move from a 4 to at least a 6 on the Loeb scale.
Latest post from Avi Loeb regarding that picture.
Quote:I calculated here that their mass density is a few million proton masses per cubic centimeter at a distance of a million kilometers from 3I/ATLAS. The product of this mass density and the outflow speed, implies a mass flux of 5 billion tons per month per area of a million-kilometer on a side. I calculated here that the total mass associated with 3I/ATLAS is at least 33 billion tons based on its early dynamics. Adopting an outer surface area for the jetted material of order a million-kilometer squared, I find that 3I/ATLAS may have lost ~16% of its mass. This is consistent with the mass fraction required by its non-gravitational acceleration at perihelion, as I calculated here.
Quote:“Houston, we have a problem” with the natural comet hypothesis! The required surface area of 3I/ATLAS to provide the inferred mass loss from the latest post-perihelion image, is at least 16 times larger than the upper limit derived here from its Hubble image on July 21, 2025.
Was the dramatic mass loss and brightening of 3I/ATLAS at perihelion evidence that it disintegrated? Breakup into fragments would have increased the surface area of its material. Since the surface-to-mass ratio scales inversely with the characteristic radius of fragments, an increase in surface area by a minimum factor of 16 requires that 3I/ATLAS broke into at least 16 equal pieces, and likely many more. This would mean that 3I/ATLAS exploded at perihelion and we are witnessing the resulting fireworks. In other words, the latest image implies that 3I/ATLAS was decimated by heating from the Sun if it is a natural comet.
Quote:The tidal force of the Sun is expected to separate the fragments in the coming weeks, creating an appearance similar to that of the comet Shoemaker-Levi 9 in 1994 near Jupiter. I discussed this possible outcome a month ago here.
However, if upcoming observations would reveal that 3I/ATLAS was not decimated by the Sun and maintained its integrity as a single body, then we will have to consider that it is something other than a natural comet. On December 19, 2025, 3I/ATLAS will get closest to Earth, allowing ground-based telescopes as well as the Hubble and Webb space telescope to diagnose its integrity.
Quote:Technological thrusters require a much smaller mass loss in order to produce the observed jets around 3I/ATLAS. Chemical rockets are propelled by an exhaust speed of 3–5 kilometers per second, which is ten times larger than the maximum ejection speed of volatiles sublimated by sunlight from natural cometary surfaces. Ion thrusters reach an even higher ejection speed of 10–50 kilometers per second. Alien-tech thrusters might employ yet higher exhaust speeds, reducing the required mass loss by several orders of magnitude and making the required fuel a small of the spacecraft mass. Upcoming spectroscopic observations will determine the velocity, mass flux and composition of the jets of 3I/ATLAS.
Stay curious!
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/did-3i-atlas...7f7479f3e0
If 3I/Atlas has broken up it will remain a happy memory of an interesting few months but if it hasn't the mystery remains and Atlas will surely move from a 4 to at least a 6 on the Loeb scale.