Scientists reveal where 'alien object' heading past Earth will actually be going


Scientists reveal where 'alien object' heading past Earth will actually be going

Scientists have been plotting the path of an interstellar object moving through our solar system as it's come as close as it's going to when it comes to striking one of the planets here.

Earlier this year the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS was spotted moving through the solar system and it's an incredibly rare occurrence for something from outside our little corner of the Milky Way to be in this neighbourhood.

There's one Harvard scientist who has warned it could be an 'alien threat', but NASA experts reckon it's a comet with an icy nucleus and a bright cloud of gas and dust around it.

It is travelling at speeds of around 130,000mph, so if it really is aliens, then they're going awfully quickly, but the most likely answer is that this is a comet which happens to be heading through our solar system.

Fortunately, it's going to go past us rather than to us, so we don't need to worry about deploying our deflection systems used to prevent humanity from going the way of the dinosaurs.

According to NASA, today (3 October) is actually the day when it's going to come 'closest' to Mars, though closest in this case is still 18.6 million miles, which is a really long way.

However, in the grand cosmic scheme of things, it's actually a nail-bitingly near miss, but thankfully, it seems as though 3I/ATLAS will pass through without incident.

Probes and spacecraft we have around the red planet will be hoping for a good look at the interstellar object during this period before 3I/ATLAS heads off to Jupiter.

Pretty soon, we won't be able to see it as it gets too close to the Sun, getting within 130 million miles of the centrepiece of our solar system around 30 October.

By comparison, it'll only come within 170 million miles of Earth as it passes by us at the closest distance on 19 December at the end of this year, so it'll pass by Earth but is going to miss us by a seriously wide margin.

Scientists have been able to plot the path of this interstellar object as it continues on its way and will eventually head out of our solar system.

After that, it's someone else's problem, assuming there's anyone else in the universe besides us, as this chunk of interstellar rock from some other part of our galaxy is here for a good time rather than a long time.

Once it clears the Sun and gets as near as it's going to get, then we'll be able to have another good look at the interstellar object.

By March of next year, the experts predict it'll move past Jupiter and then continue on its merry way out of our solar system.

Previous articleNext article

POPULAR CATEGORY

corporate

14907

entertainment

18153

research

9004

misc

17932

wellness

14942

athletics

19310