Approaching Earth: A signal from a "mysterious object" baffles astronomers

Astronomers have detected a radio signal from a mysterious object coming from outside the solar system as it speeds through our cosmic sphere.

The MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa detected hydroxyl (OH) molecules around the object on October 24, according to the British newspaper "Daily Mail".

Professor Avi Loeb of Harvard University, who has been studying the 3I/ATLAS object since the summer, said: "These molecules leave a distinctive radio signature that telescopes like MeerKAT can detect."

Analysis of the molecules indicates that the surface temperature of the object is approximately 45 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, and that its diameter may reach about six miles.

This discovery comes just days after the object passed close to Earth's orbital plane, making it easier to monitor.

Optical images taken on November 9 also showed that the object was emitting huge jets of material extending about 600,000 miles toward the sun, and nearly 1.8 million miles in the opposite direction — distances roughly equal to the diameter of the sun or moon as we see them in the sky.

At a distance of 203 million miles from Earth, these measurements are the first clear estimate of the magnitude of the activity surrounding 3I/ATLAS.

According to Loop, the new data indicates that the body's width is at least three miles, and may reach six or more.

Loeb asserts that the enormous size of 3I/ATLAS' jets raises fundamental questions; if the object were a normal comet, its jets should have expanded much more slowly and taken months to reach the distances observed.

But the mass, density, and striking brightness of these flows suggest something unusual.

Much about the nature of the object is expected to be determined on December 19, when 3I/ATLAS reaches its closest point to Earth , at which time telescopes such as Hubble and James Webb will be able to accurately measure its speed, composition, and the mass of its jets.

These measurements may help determine whether the object is simply a conventional icy comet — or perhaps equipped with technological thrusters capable of launching similar jets but with much less mass loss.

Loeb added: "Combining radio and optical data shows that it is losing enormous amounts of matter, moving at incredible speeds, and behaving in ways that challenge our understanding of normal comets."