Interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas Has Another Surprise: It’s Full of Alcohol

Comet 3I/Atlas is now heading out of the solar system and into interstellar space, but scientists are still analyzing the data it left behind as it passed through our cosmic neighborhood. A new study, still under review, reveals a surprising detail: The comet is laden with alcohol.

Observations from the ALMA telescope in Chile's Atacama Desert show that the coma of this celestial object is heavily enriched in methanol, a type of alcohol common in fuels and solvents. Although methanol is commonly found in comets in the solar system, 3I/Atlas contained up to four times the typical amount.

According to the study, available at arXiv, 3I/Atlas is the second most methanol-rich comet ever measured, behind only the unusual C/2016 R2, discovered 10 years ago. Parallel investigations have also detected high abundances of other organic compounds, such as carbon dioxide, iron, and nitrogen, reinforcing the idea ...