Is it comet or alien spaceship? Watch 3I/ATLAS livestream tonight
What's the story
The Virtual Telescope Project will be livestreaming the interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS tonight at 11:15pm ET. The massive celestial body, first discovered four months ago, will be visible in the eastern sky, moving through the constellation Virgo. The event comes as NASA is expected to release high-resolution images of this enigmatic object, captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera in early October.
Global glimpse
Viewing event to feature telescopes in Italy
The Virtual Telescope Project will set up a series of telescopes in Manciano, Italy, for this viewing event. The comet's brightness is too dim (+10.9) to be seen with the naked eye, making this global livestream an opportunity for people worldwide to catch a glimpse of 3I/ATLAS. This comes after months of speculation about the comet's unusual origin and composition. It is the third known interstellar object confirmed to pass through our solar system.
Theories abound
Speculations surrounding comet 3I/ATLAS's nature and origin
The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has sparked a lot of curiosity among experts and scientists who have been closely monitoring the Manhattan-sized cosmic visitor. Last month, its close approach to Jupiter, Venus, and Mars led some to believe it could be an alien spaceship. Elon Musk even suggested a comet of this size could "obliterate a continent...maybe worse."
Government inefficiency
Harvard astrophysicist criticizes delayed release of images
Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, who has suggested that the object could be an alien spaceship, criticized the delayed release of images as a sign of government inefficiency. He said, "Science should have been prioritized over bureaucracy," and added that "the truth about the nature of 3I/ATLAS will be revealed by the sharing of data, not by the storyline of gatekeepers."