Exact date interstellar visitor will reveal itself as 'mothership'

"Harvard professor Avi Loeb told DailyMail.com that if the object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, is a comet, it should 'disintegrate into fragments' as it swings closest to the sun on October 29, 2025. The European Space Agency's Jupiter probe will have a front-row seat, capturing the moment it either breaks apart or, as Loeb speculated, 'releases mini-probes as a technological mothership.' 'When a comet gets close to the sun, solar radiation heats its icy nucleus,' Loeb explained."

"The mysterious interstellar visitor streaking through our Solar System is just days away from revealing its true origins. The ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) craft will have a view of the object when it comes 125 million miles from the planet and monitor it through November. 'During November and December, terrestrial observatories will also be able to monitor 3I/ATLAS and check whether it disintegrated like a natural comet or released mini-probes as a technological mothership,' Loeb explained."

Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS will swing closest to the sun on October 29, 2025 and may disintegrate into fragments if it is a comet. Solar heating causes volatile ices such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and water to sublimate, carrying dust and small rocks and potentially causing thermal-stress breakup. Alternatively, the object could be non-natural, with a 30–40 percent chance of not having a fully natural origin and possibly acting as a Trojan Horse or technological mothership that releases mini-probes. ESA's Juice probe will observe from about 125 million miles from Jupiter through November, and ground observatories will monitor during November and December.

Read at Mail Online