Live Telescope Images Show Growing Comet Tail - WION Podcast

Welcome to the WeOn Podcast, where we explore fascinating stories and ideas from various fields. In this episode, we uncover how the interstellar object 3i, Atlas, has developed a visible tale in live Gemini images, and whether this means it could actually be a comet. New images of the interstellar object 3i, Atlas, are finally showing a visible cometary tale, putting at least some speculation about the visitor to an end. However, several questions remain unanswered about the object that has captivated the imagination of astronomers across the world. Observations made by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph, or GMOS, on Gemini South at Cerro Pachón in Chile, have revealed a cometary tale and a glowing coma. The discovery was made during a public outreach initiative organized by NSF NOAA Lab, in which it connects people with scientists to generate interest in scientific experiments. The session conducted on August 27th revealed that the object was starting to show signs of a comet with a broad coma, which is a cloud of gas and dust that forms around the comet's icy nucleus as it gets closer to the Sun. The tale spans about 120th of a degree in the sky in pointing away from the Sun. The new images present a much clearer view of 3i Atlas as compared to the other photos taken till now. The presence of a tale and a coma is likely to put to rest all speculation about 3i Atlas and whether it is a comet or a new kind of cosmic object. The new photos also reduce the weight of claims made by Harvard scientist Avi Loeb, who thinks the interstellar object could be an alien spaceship. He had cited the lack of a clear tale as evidence that 3i Atlas is not a comet. Loeb also presented a bunch of other details to claim that it was a spacecraft sent by an advanced civilization. Students from Hawaii and La Serena, Chile, remotely joined the Gemini South control room and followed the observations on 3i Atlas in real time. The other purpose of the session was to gather data on the comet's spectrum. This feature of the comet refers to the wavelengths of light that it emits, and can tell about the comet's composition. This information will be valuable to know how the comet changes as it makes its way through the solar system. We were excited to see the growth of the tale, suggesting a change in the particles from the previous Gemini images, and we got our first glimpse of the chemistry from the spectrum, said Karen Meach, astronomer at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy and leader of the program. Interstellar object 3i Atlas was discovered on July 1, 2025, and instantly became an object of fascination among astronomers. They noticed that it was on a strange trajectory, which meant it had come from outer space. 3i Atlas is only the third interstellar object to enter our solar system, after Oumuamua in 2017 and Comet 2i Borisov in 2019. It is traveling at a staggering speed of 60,000 km second. It will come close to Mars on October 3, and later the Sun, providing the perfect opportunity to study the strange visitor. Thanks for tuning into this incredible story. If this episode resonated with you, don't forget to hit the like and subscribe button for more captivating stories to come. Stay tuned.