From Space.com: "NASA space telescope sees interstellar visitor comet 3I/ATLAS flare up while exiting the solar system."
NASA's SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) space telescope captured views in December 2025 of the comet releasing a surge of gas, dust and complex molecules two months after the object's closest approach to the sun — a surprising outburst that's giving scientists their clearest chemical look yet at material formed around another star, according to a statement from NASA.
Everything tends to behave oddly as it crosses that boundary from the relatively positively charged area inside the sun's influence to the relatively negatively charged interstellar medium... but you never know ;)
ReplyDeleteAlthough the title of the article says that it occurred while exiting the solar system, the body of the article says that it was when the comet was leaving the inner solar system, which I take to be somewhere between Mars and Jupiter.
DeleteYou are correct. It is still in the Solar System. Closest approach to Jupiter is on March 16.
DeleteDang. That means it's nowhere near the heliopause. Might've hit the heliospheric current sheet...
DeleteCuriouser and curiouser...