Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Is Spewing Water Like a Cosmic Fire Hydrant

Analyses of its emissions using NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory indicate that the interstellar comet probably has a very different structure than comets in the solar system.

Comet 3I/Atlas continues to be full of surprises. As well as being only the third interstellar object ever detected, new analysis shows it is producing hydroxyl (OH) emissions, with these compounds betraying the presence of water on its surface. This discovery was made by a team of researchers at Auburn University in Alabama using NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and was described in a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.