Webb telescope reveals irradiated crust on interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS

economictimes.indiatimes.com

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has a 50-65 foot irradiated crust formed by billions of years of cosmic ray exposure. New research indicates this crust's extreme carbon dioxide enrichment resulted from galactic cosmic rays converting carbon monoxide during its 7-billion-year journey. This finding suggests interstellar objects may primarily consist of processed material rather than pristine matter from their origin.


With a significance score of 4.9, this news ranks in the top 1.3% of today's 27761 analyzed articles.

Get summaries of news with significance over 5.5 (usually ~10 stories per week). Read by 10,000+ subscribers: