Interstellar – Page 2 – My WordPress Site

This image, taken on Oct. 5, 2025 by the MAVEN spacecraft, shows the coma of gas and dust surrounding comet 3I/ATLAS. Combining data from NASA’s MAVEN, James Webb Space Telescope, and SPHEREx missions helped reveal the comet’s production rates of volatile molecules including water. NASA/Goddard/LASP/CU Boulder

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Citizen Science / Open Science, Comets and Asteroids, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar

How Open NASA Data on Comet 3I/ATLAS Will Power Tomorrow’s Discoveries

by Keith CowingMarch 25, 2026March 25, 2026

Optical depth maps of the near-IR H2O, CO2, and CO ice features in the disk sample, calculated for pixels with a >3σ detection across the ice band. For clarity, the color map within each panel is individually normalized (i.e., divided by the maximum per-pixel optical depth for a given ice band in a given disk). The maximum optical depths are indicated in the bottom left of each panel. Dotted grey lines represent the 3σ contour of the near-IR continuum maps shown in Figure 1. Horizontal bars represent a linear scale of 100 au. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar

JWST Edge-on Disk Ice (JEDIce): Program Overview And Ice Survey Results

by Keith CowingMarch 22, 2026March 22, 2026

Scatter plots of potential candidate in frequency, drift rate and signal-to-noise ratio for each polarization channel. The color and the size for each point represent the value of SNR in log space. The green and red color bar is the frequency ranges of civil aviation and navigation satellites, respectively. The black dashed lines represent the expected drift rates for each observation date. -- astro-ph.IM

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Intelligence & Language, Interstellar, Magnetic Fields, Electromagnetism, bioelectricity,, SETI & Technosignatures

Narrowband Radio Technosignature Search Toward 3I/ATLAS With FAST

by Keith CowingMarch 21, 2026March 21, 2026

Eimission spectra of 3I/ATLAS taken with BFOSC and YFOSC. For clarity, the full spectral range is divided into three panels with different vertical offsets to emphasize specific features. The left panel highlights emission lines of Ni i (blue dashed lines) and Fe i (red dashed lines), and the CN violet band (blue shaded). The middle panel shows molecular bands of C3 (green shaded), CH (orange shaded), and C2 (red shaded), and lists the heliocentric distance for each spectrum. The right panel displays the [O i] λλ6300, 6364 doublet (green dashed lines). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar

Post-perihelion Coma Composition Of The Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS From Optical Spectroscopy

by Keith CowingMarch 19, 2026March 19, 2026

F187N image showing Pa𝛼 emission line flux (MJy/sr), which can be treated as a proxy for FUV radiation. The dark blue regions have flux of the order 100 MJy/sr, and the bright yellow regions have flux of the order 102 MJy/sr. The image shows the stellar radiation which is coming from the NGC6611 cluster located above the pillars. North is up and east is to the left. -- astro-ph.GA

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar

Spatial Analysis Of PAH Molecules In The Pillars Of Creation Using JWST

by Keith CowingMarch 18, 2026March 18, 2026

Astrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar

High Nitrogen And Carbon Isotopic Ratios In The Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

by Keith CowingMarch 18, 2026March 18, 2026

Spectrally integrated line flux maps for 3I/ATLAS observed using JWST NIRSpec: (a) H2O at 2.7 µm, (b) CO2 at 4.3 µm, (c) CO at 4.7 µm. Image axes are aligned with the equatorial (RA/decl.) grid. Molecular emission has been isolated by subtracting a polynomial fit to the adjacent continuum. Spatial coordinates are with respect to the brightest pixel in each map (the pseudo-nucleus). Inset panels (upper right) show the continuum-subtracted spectra within the image integration wavelength range, spatially integrated within a 3′′ diameter circular aperture centered on the pseudo-nucleus (corresponding to 3,900 km at the 1.8 au distance of the comet from the telescope). Lower left corner shows the direction of the (sky-projected) comet-Sun (S) and nucleus velocity (v) vectors. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar

Isotopic Evidence For A Cold And Distant Origin Of The Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS

by Keith CowingMarch 17, 2026March 17, 2026

Disk physical structure from our three parametric models (Models 1 to 3 from top to bottom, see Tables 1 and 2). The 2D gas temperature (left) and total H density (right) are shown as colors, with iso-curves in white. The dashed red line corresponds to AV = 1 mag (as measured from the top). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar

Ortho-Para Chemistry of H2CO in the Protoplanetary Disk TW Hya

by Keith CowingMarch 17, 2026March 17, 2026

Life-friendly moon -- A realistic depiction of a free-floating gas giant planet and its Earth-like moon © Dahlbüdding/DALL-E

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar

Conditions Suitable For Life On Distant Moons

by Keith CowingMarch 16, 2026March 16, 2026

Stacked images of 3I/ATLAS acquired by HiRIC CMOS camera onboard Tianwen-1 spacecraft (upper row) and the corresponding 1/ρ divided images (lower row) from the three epochs. All images are displayed north up and east to the left. The stacked images are displayed with logarithmic brightness stretch, and the enhanced images are displayed with a linear brightness stretch. The arrows in the upper panels mark the projected directions of the Sun and the heliocentric velocity vector. The scalebars are 10,000 km. The bright star trails are visible in each stack due to the apparent movement of 3I in the sky background during each 30-second observation epoch. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar

Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Observed from Mars by China’s Tianwen-1 Spacecraft

by Keith CowingMarch 14, 2026March 14, 2026