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Apparently Vera Rubin Captured Images of 3I/ATLAS Before It Was Even Discovered
EARTH, JUL 21 – Vera Rubin Observatory captured the earliest high-resolution images of 3I/ATLAS before its official discovery, aiding the study of its unique interstellar origin and cometary behavior.
- The Vera C. Rubin Observatory captured high-resolution images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS between June 21 and July 7, 2025, before its official discovery on July 1.
- This occurred during Rubin's Science Validation phase while all systems were tested and not yet operating routinely, explaining the delayed recognition of the comet in images.
- 3I/ATLAS shows typical cometary behavior with a coma of gas and dust that grew about 58% as it approached the Sun, confirming it as the third known interstellar object observed entering our solar system.
- Researchers noted that 3I/ATLAS contains abundant water ice and has a dust composition like D-type asteroids, with no sign of non-gravitational acceleration similar to 1I/Oumuamua, while expecting at least 100 more images to be collected.
- These observations establish Rubin's potential to transform astronomy during its Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which may discover up to 50 interstellar objects in the next decade despite the comet becoming unobservable after August 22 due to solar blockage.
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13 Articles
Apparently Vera Rubin captured images of 3I/ATLAS before it was even discovered
Sometimes serendipity happens in science. Whether it's an apple falling from a tree or a melting chocolate bar, some of the world's greatest discoveries come from happy accidents, even if their stories may be apocryphal. According to a new paper on the arXiv preprint server, there's a new story to add to the archives of serendipitous scientific discoveries—Rubin happened to make observations of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS before its official di…
Apparently Vera Rubin Captured Images Of 3I/ATLAS Before It Was Even Discovered
Sometimes serendipity happens in science. Whether it’s an apple falling from a tree or a melting chocolate bar, some of the world’s greatest discoveries come from happy accidents, even if their stories may be apocryphal. According to a new paper on arXiv, there’s a new story to add to the archives of serendipitous scientific discoveries - Rubin happened to make observations of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS before its official discovery, while the…
Recently the first pictures of the new large telescope were published in Chile. Who was the woman who became the name giver posthumously?
On July 1, the ATLAS telescope in Chile detected a comet with an unusual trajectory: the 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object ever observed. It does not represent a danger to the Earth, but its size—more than 20 km wide—and origin makes it exceptional. Unlike ‘Oumuamua, the first interstellar visitor discovered in 2017, which was less than 200 meters, this one will be much easier to study. These comets are relics of other planetary systems an…
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