The 3I/ATLAS has not stopped surprising the scientific world. This comet is everything a researcher dreams of, it is mysterious and no one knows where it comes from, but it could indeed carry meaning from the primitive universe, that is, from how the first galaxies were formed.
Scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the ALMA telescope (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) detected a huge amount of methanol and hydrogen cyanide, and maybe this information does not mean anything to you, but you should know that these are essential molecules of living beings because they work in the production of proteins and amino acids (the ones that form DNA and RNA). And a space object with so much of these proteins had never been seen before.
Of course, theories have not been lacking and some already claim that life on our planet could have originated this way, transported in a space object that crashed into our planet.
What is 3I/ATLAS?
A stellar object traveling through space, it is the third largest that has been detected and its speed circulating through our solar system is fascinating. It is so striking because it is only going to be in our solar system for a few months and it is not expected to ever pass again (unless its trajectory changes drastically) so that reduces the time researchers have to analyze this object.
Methanol and hydrogen cyanide…
When ALMA analyzed its composition, all alarms went off because it did not bring traces of these molecules but enormous quantities, almost four times more than any object that has already been studied in our system. Actually, more than 8 percent of the vapor released by this comet is methanol, it is a huge amount compared to other objects. And they are already reviewing whether there are similar models that explain the formation of this comet… does it really have organic matter?
An active comet inside and out
The molecules do not only come from its surface, they also come from the interior. That means its “chemical richness” is not an accident, it is literally built with these ingredients!
As if it were… a garden?
Yes! That is what the researchers have called it, “interstellar gardeners”, because by detecting these molecules they remembered a theory that suggests that our life appeared when the “ingredients” traveled in one of these stellar objects, and thus, as it passes or crashes into other planets, it acts as a “gardener” planting chemical seeds.
And although no one claims that these molecules “create life” on their own, it is undeniable that they are the bricks with which everything on Earth began, do you not think?
What comes next?
Well, this comet will continue passing through our system during what remains of 2025, and it is estimated that it will not pass again, that it will move away from the sun and we will no longer be able to see it… But for now, it is important that all astronomical resources be used to observe this phenomenon as much as possible, because it will only happen once in a lifetime!
Time to rethink things
Maybe the fact of finding organic richness will bring all the theories we had discarded as “naive” back to the table, because the idea that life did not arise here but “arrived” now has more strength than ever.
And each object that passes through this system is like opening a window into the past of another solar system, but this one comes with something different, the same components that created life here… you cannot tell me it does not spark even a bit of interest!