WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Nice!!! Now I’m wondering how much meteorites hit the moons surface on a daily basis. I would assume a lot

I think some flavors of of crackpot science and psuedoscience by the lay public is driven by popular science writing. Specifically, mistaking pop sci and other scicomm for science itself.

This isn't a knock on science communicators—in fact I'd say it's a sign of *good* scicomm.

🧵🧪🔭

Plot of the R and Green visual magnitudes of our interstellar visitor, 3I/ATLAS.

Here is an update using the latest MPC DB update (once a month now, not once a week). Our interstellar visitor, 3I/ATLAS, is leaving the solar system and its optical magnitude is steadily dropping, more or less in line with the predictions from late November. This bodes well for Juno in March.

Amazing. Hopefully it never comes back up!

Honestly I don’t really care about 3I anymore, it’s leaving the solar system now

lol you guys are still going on with this spaceship nonsense?

Pre-perihelion evolution of the NiI/FeI abundance ratio in the coma of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. From extreme to normal Emission lines of FeI and NiI are commonly found in the coma of Solar System comets, even at large heliocentric distances. These atoms are most likely released from the surface of the comet's nucleus ...

For 3I/ATLAS's closest approach to Earth, have an accepted paper: as it got closer to the Sun, 3I's production of atomic nickel and iron in its coma evolved to a ratio like that of Solar System comets and 2I ☄️🔭
Hutsemékers et al. A&A arxiv.org/abs/2509.26053

The arrangement of the solar system on the day, Dec. 19, of the closest approach of our interstellar visitor, 3I/ATLAS, to Earth.

Here is the arrangement of the solar system today, Dec 19. Our interstellar visitor, 3I/ATLAS, is on its way out of the solar system - the next close approach will be with Juno at Jupiter in March - but _today_ will be the day it comes closest to Earth - alas, not very close at 1.8 AU away.

Japan probably has a massive increase lol

Image of 3I/ATLAS from December 14. Imaging details * Anti-solar-tail a rich deep blue more evident on the starless versions. * Over two hours of integration time with waning crescent moon present. * Measured magnitude 10.8.

Nice image of our interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS from Dan Bartlett in California and the comet-ml. Note that the coma is green and there is a blue tail and anti-tail. This is from a 2 hour exposure.

NASA Teams Work MAVEN Spacecraft Signal Loss - NASA Science NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, in orbit around Mars, experienced a loss of signal with ground stations on Earth on Dec. 6.

NASA lost contact with the MAVEN spacecraft orbiting Mars on Saturday.

They're working the problem in an attempt to reestablish contact with MAVEN.

There's no reason right now to suspect the spacecraft has been lost. It's just not phoning home when it should be.

science.nasa.gov/blogs/maven/...

The number of observations per day of our interstellar visitor, 3I/ATLAS, from the minor planet center data base.

The number of observations per day of our interstellar visitor, 3I/ATLAS. After its passage behind the Sun, the observation count is rising as we near its closest approach to the Earth on Dec. 19. By January, it will start dropping as it leaves the solar system.

Like what? Bring it on

There’s nothing highly anomalous unless you’re just uneducated

Brother you’re posting garbage AI generated YouTube videos of 3I.

Your opinion literally does no matter 😂 There are loads of evidence pointing to the natural origin of 3I. Cope.

Loeb’s Behavior is Reckless I’ve largely ignored Loeb for the past few weeks. When he started in on his 3I/ATLAS thing, there were plenty of mainstream media outlets willing to give his claims a wide and credulous platform, and ...

Some have argued to me strongly that even if Loeb is wrong, he’s getting people interested in 3I/ATLAS and that’s a good thing for science.

But Loeb isn't just wrong, he's recklessly following an old playbook that got 39 people killed in 1997.

sites.psu.edu/astrowright/...

A bright white object glowing with green tones against a dark, starry space backdrop. The text "3I/ATLAS Facts, not fiction" appears on the image.

The interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS ☄️ cruising through our Solar System is no alien spaceship and won't hit Earth.

Still, the buzz around it is far from unfounded 🤩

Discover why with #ChasingStarlight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtiqLxfSiVI

🔭 🧪

David, have you seen this new paper proposing that 3I is a tiny chunk of an exomoon? I found it interesting, but I’m not knowledgeable enough to discern the calculations & data like you can.

egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...

I figured you would be interested in taking a look at the paper.

No problem.

Always appreciate you and the scientific communities insight.

Obviously not peer reviewed but just wanted your take on it.

Awesome capture.

Marshall, have you seen this new paper proposing that 3I is a tiny chunk of an exomoon? I found it somewhat interesting but not sure how sound the math is. egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...

The comet appears as a white dot in the middle of a large blue halo. A few stars appear as bluish streaks of light against the black background. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, D. Jewitt (UCLA). Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

Hubble went back to observe interstellar comet #3I/ATLAS on 30 November. At the time, the comet was about 286 million kilometres from Earth 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

Hubble tracked the comet as it moved across the sky. That's why background stars appear as streaks of light. 🔭 🧪

Still no aliens...
☄️🔭

Comet 3I/ATLAS shows activity in Juice navigation camera teaser Comet 3I/ATLAS shows activity in Juice navigation camera teaser

Comet 3I/ATLAS shows activity in Juice navigation camera teaser

www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

When looking at a picture of a comet for faint activity, I suggest applying a low-pass filter.

I personally do this by looking at the picture without my glasses.

This is a reminder that UFOs are a social phenomenon based around people misunderstanding what they see.

And it is a mistake for astronomers and other scientists to pretend otherwise.

FOIA for another countries space agency info? Huh lol?

3I has been a thought-provoking practice run in a number of ways... How exciting would it be if we get to point CoCa at an ISO!

ESA Member States commit to largest contributions at Ministerial The largest contributions in the history of the European Space Agency, €22.1 bn, have been approved at its Council meeting at Ministerial level in Bremen, ...

"The Ramses mission, to be built on a tight schedule to intercept the asteroid Apophis on its close encounter with Earth in 2029 is funded, and will help to prepare for future potentially hazardous asteroids."

Congratulations and good luck to everyone on the Ramses team!
www.esa.int/About_Us/Cor...

NASA’s PUNCH Spies Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS - NASA Science NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS during its passage through the

Now it can (finally) be told. We've been tracking Comet 3I more or less continuously with PUNCH. Everything is fine. 3I is definitely very interesting – but it is most definitely *not* an alien spaceship undergoing maneuvers, no matter what that Boston guy says. ☀️🛰️🔭🧪 #3I #comet #not_aliens