Study Findings: Isotopic Evidence for a Cold and Distant Origin of 3I/ATLAS

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: NASA

Nature abstract of study findings:

Interstellar objects provide the only directly observable samples of icy planetesimals formed around other stars, and can therefore provide insight into the diversity of physical and chemical conditions occurring during exoplanet formation. Here we report isotopic measurements of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, which reveal an elemental composition unlike any Solar System body. The water in 3I/ATLAS is enriched in deuterium, at a level of D/H = (0.98 ± 0.06)%, which is more than an order of magnitude higher than in known comets, while its range of 12C/13C ratios (141–191 for CO2 and 123–172 for CO) exceeds typical values found in the Solar System, as well as nearby interstellar clouds and protoplanetary disks. Such extreme isotopic signatures indicate formation at temperatures ≲ 30 K in a relatively metal-poor environment. When interpreted with respect to models for Galactic chemical evolution, the carbon isotopic composition implies that 3I/ATLAS may have accreted as long ago as 12 billion years, following a period of intense, early star formation. 3I/ATLAS thus represents a preserved fragment of an ancient planetary system.

Citation: Cordiner, M., Roth, N.X., Micheli, M. et al. Isotopic evidence for a cold and distant origin of 3I/ATLAS. Nature (2026).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10771-6

Study-related stories:

Scientific American – “Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS is Almost as Old as the Universe Itself”

CBS News – “Interstellar Comet that Zoomed Past Earth Could Be Oldest and Coldest Object Ever Seen in Solar System, Astronomers Say”

Live Science – “’Interstellar Messenger’ 3I/ATLAS Could Be Nearly as Old as the Universe Itself, James Webb Telescope Observations Reveal”

Space Stories: A New Player in the Race for Mars, Swarming Exoplanet Seekers, and a Over-sized Pink Exoplanet

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Martian dunes at Endurance Crater as viewed by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. (NASA/JPL/Cornell)

Here are some recent space-related stories.

—Techcrunch: “NASA Picks Eric Schmidt’s Rocket Company for Mars Mission, Setting Up a Race with SpaceX“

Relativity Space — a rocket maker acquired by former Google executive chair Eric Schmidt last year after stumbling on the path to orbit — might just beat SpaceX to Mars. On Tuesday, NASA said it hired the company to build a spacecraft to house a suite of scientific instruments, launch it into space, and fly it to Mars. The structure of the contract is akin to the deals that NASA made with SpaceX to fly cargo to the International Space Station, or Firefly Aerospace to put a lander on the moon. The government agency handles the science, while the private company provides low-cost infrastructure.

—Universe Today: “Astronomers Want to Build a Swarm of Telescopes to Find LIFE“

Current plans for flagship telescopes in the 2040s are focused on answering a simple question – are we alone? Our best telescopes to date, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have only given us tantalizing glimpses into the atmospheres or other worlds, but not enough to truly determine whether or not life as we know it exists there. Astronomers have been waiting for technology to catch up to their dreams of what is possible in terms of new types of telescopes, and recently the W.M. Keck Institute for Space Studies released a report detailing the Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE) mission, which they hope will help provide a definitive answer to that simple question.

—BBC Sky at Night: “The Pink Planet is So Weird, Astronomers Struggle to Define It. And They’ve Just Found It’s Covered in Salty Clouds“

There’s a pink planet, just a stone’s throw from Earth, that astronomers have been trying to decipher for over a decade. Known as the Pink Planet or, officially, GJ504b, this strange world orbits a Sun-like star 57 lightyears from Earth. Astronomers aren’t even sure if it’s a planet at all. About 25 times the mass of Jupiter, it’s so massive it’s on the boundary between giant planets and brown dwarfs (a type of failed star). But observations with the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed direct evidence for something rather strange at the Pink Planet: salty clouds.

Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.

Space Quote: Every Day is Disclosure Day

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Smim Bipi from Pixabay

“There’s no effort to keep it secret. If we [get] a signal, it’s going to be out there. The next step is transparency.”

-Statement by Dr. Carol Oliver, as quoted in a Scientific American article titled, “What Disclosure Day Gets Wrong About the Search for Aliens.” Dr. Oliver is a professor of science communication and astrobiology at the University of New South Wales in Australia. She is also involved with the latest version of the SETI Post-Detection Protocols, which establishes procedures for astronomers who believe they have detected evidence of an extra-terrestrial civilization.

Twisted White House Humor Involving Aliens

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Aliens.gov

The same White House that promised to share information on UFOs and potential alien visits is now spreading disinformation on non-citizens. Just go to aliens.gov and check it our for yourself.

When you go to the site you are hit with language like this:

Millions arrived under the cover of darkness and embedded themselves directly into our society.

Countless presidents, congressmen, and senior officials knew exactly what was happening.

But what you really have is a government page connected to ICE where you can turn in your neighbors. It sounds more like a twisted government playing off of the recent film Disclosure Day while generally insulting those Americans who were hoping this government could shed some light on UFOs.

Wired magazine also highlighted the flawed information on the website, noting:

One of the first things visitors to the site see is a counter labeled “encounters,” ostensibly indicating how many undocumented immigrants federal agents have arrested since Trump took office. The counter is fake. The starting number—3,129,580—is hand-typed into the website, and its upward motion is generated by a timer initiated by the visitor’s own browser, according to a WIRED analysis of the site’s code. The figure does not correspond to any enforcement total published by immigration authorities and is roughly seven times larger than the actual ICE arrest count since January 2025.

So again, what we have is a government promising transparency about UFO records only to mislead the public with a bait-and-switch page providing false information.

Is anyone really surprised that the public does not trust the government on such matters?

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