Comets, 3I/ATLAS, and Space Aliens
Several planets, moons, and comets were known until 1801, then an asteroid was discovered. More space rocks were found in the late 20th century. Some scientists decided that since ere are so many of them, people should be watching for any that may crash into the earth. That would spoil a good day.
ATLAS is a big part of sky scanning, and 3I/ATLAS is the name given to a certain object. At first, it was thought to be an asteroid. But the orbit is wrong, not gravitationally tied to the sun — it is an interstellar comet.
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| Interstellar comet 3I / ATLAS by Hubble telescope, NASA, ESA, David Jewitt (UCLA) et al (usage does not imply endorsement) |
[Near-Earth objects] are asteroids that have orbits around the sun that are very close to earth’s orbit around the sun. NEOs have the potential of colliding with earth, an event that could have consequences that could end civilization. Therefore, advanced knowledge of such an event is of great importance, though it is not clear what, if anything, could be done if we were to have prior knowledge of a collision of this nature. Every clear night, each ATLAS telescope surveys one-quarter of the observable sky four times. Any moving object (such as an orbiting asteroid) is detected by its shift between the four surveys.
To read Dr. Faulkner's discussion of the subject, click on "Why All the Fuss Over 3I/ATLAS?" You may also like to see "An Interstellar Asteroid?" from 2018.
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