Interstellar comet is a time capsule from another star system
CNN • • science
Key Points:
- Astronomers studied interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS using the ALMA radio telescope, detecting for the first time deuterium in an interstellar object’s water, revealing its origin in an extremely cold planetary system outside our solar system.
- The comet’s water contains over 40 times the deuterium abundance found in Earth’s oceans and more than 30 times that in solar system comets, indicating formation in a cold environment below 30 Kelvin (-243°C).
- 3I/ATLAS is estimated to be up to 11 billion years old, significantly older than our solar system, and likely formed in the outer regions of a protoplanetary disk where deuterated water was preserved.
- The findings provide unique insights into the physical conditions of ancient planetary systems and the Milky Way’s environment long before our solar system existed.
- Future observations by facilities like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory may identify more interstellar objects, helping to determine whether 3I/ATLAS’s characteristics are typical or exceptional among such comets.
