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Here's the math that counts re 3I/Atlas; I'm gonna make this simple and easy
| https://imgur.com/a/o2g8xYK | 11/08/25 |
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Date: November 8th, 2025 9:51 PM Author: https://imgur.com/a/o2g8xYK This thing came from the core of the Milky Way, the center area where there are fuckloads of stars jammed together. It probably didn't originate there, but was part of something that got slowly sucked in and transformed into some crazy metal alloy we haven't seen in space before.
Based on its trajectory we can only trace its movements back about 10 million years. HOWEVER that's enough for us figure out roughly how long its been since this object got this close to any star. As far as we can tell, ever since this thing got ejected, it has only passed other stars at great distances. The closest it came to any other star would have have been about 8x the distance it will be from the sun.
That is a big part of why its behavior/interaction with the sun has brought surprises. We think we're surprised to see this thing, but imagine being a 5km-wide chunk of nickel getting this close to a star for the first time since you were ejected from the core. Imagine feeling heat again after all those years |