1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:04,160 Speaker 1: Imagine this for a second. Every single powerful telescope we 2 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:06,559 have on Earth, you know, the big ground based ones, 3 00:00:06,919 --> 00:00:10,160 plus our eyes in space like Hubble and Web, suddenly 4 00:00:10,359 --> 00:00:13,599 they all pivot, all focused on just one single, really 5 00:00:13,640 --> 00:00:16,800 strange point of light moving across the sky. It's just 6 00:00:16,839 --> 00:00:19,079 a spec sure, but it's a speck that's got the 7 00:00:19,199 --> 00:00:23,519 entire scientific world buzzing, totally captivated. And this isn't just 8 00:00:23,719 --> 00:00:26,839 you know, another asteroid. This thing is heading towards our 9 00:00:27,039 --> 00:00:30,600 Sun fast and it's baffled some of the smartest people 10 00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:33,079 on the planet. It's a puzzle, and as a puzzle 11 00:00:33,079 --> 00:00:36,320 that's about to disappear behind the Sun, hidden from our view, 12 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:38,799 we're literally in a race against time here, like a 13 00:00:38,799 --> 00:00:41,079 cosmic sprint really, because once it's gone behind the Sun, 14 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:43,560 that's it. We're left with a huge scientific mystery and 15 00:00:43,679 --> 00:00:46,280 enigma that's already shaking up what we thought we knew. Yeah, 16 00:00:46,359 --> 00:00:48,759 this isn't just another rock floating around. It's something else, 17 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:52,479 something ancient, something genuinely alien. And when I say alien, 18 00:00:52,520 --> 00:00:54,799 look I don't necessarily mean space ships and little green men. 19 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:57,520 Although well we'll get to some of the wilder theories later, 20 00:00:57,520 --> 00:00:59,679 because they are pretty provocative, but I mean alien, and 21 00:00:59,679 --> 00:01:01,359 the truth sets foreign. 22 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:06,040 Speaker 2: From somewhere else, entirely another star system. It's incredibly old, 23 00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:09,319 and just its presence, the way it's behaving, is already 24 00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:12,000 making us rethink things. So our mission right here in 25 00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:14,640 this deep dive is to unpack everything what we know, 26 00:01:14,719 --> 00:01:16,519 which is fascinating, and all the stuff we don't know, 27 00:01:16,519 --> 00:01:18,680 which is honestly just as intriguing. We want to help 28 00:01:18,719 --> 00:01:20,439 you get a handle on what makes this visitor so 29 00:01:20,719 --> 00:01:24,719 incredibly weird, so unique, and why scientists everywhere are scrambling, 30 00:01:24,959 --> 00:01:28,120 basically working twenty towards seven to grab every last bit 31 00:01:28,159 --> 00:01:31,560 of data before this cosmic window closes. Its official name 32 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:34,519 is three I Atlas. Simple enough, right, It just means 33 00:01:34,840 --> 00:01:38,000 third interstellar object. You know that word interstellar. That's what 34 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:39,959 always got me, even as kid. I remember lying out 35 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:42,200 in the backyard looking up at all those stars, just 36 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:45,439 wondering how does something travel between them? That distances are 37 00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:48,079 just immense, So interstellar means it comes from one of 38 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:51,000 those distant stars, from a whole the Solar system, somewhere 39 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:53,640 else in our Milky Way galaxy. It's traveled I mean 40 00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:57,000 an unimaginable distance, probably for an unimaginable amount of time 41 00:01:57,200 --> 00:01:59,040 just to get here. Just wrap your head around that. 42 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:03,400 Speaker 3: For a moment, and that interstellar tag isn't just a label. 43 00:02:03,519 --> 00:02:06,799 It's really the key, the absolute key to understanding why 44 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:09,919 this is so significant. We're not talking about, say, something 45 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:12,000 flung out from the Orc cloud at the edge of 46 00:02:12,039 --> 00:02:15,080 our own solar system, which would be amazing enough, frankly, No, 47 00:02:15,319 --> 00:02:18,479 this object, it almost certainly comes from somewhere really really old, 48 00:02:18,759 --> 00:02:20,960 a star system that could easily be I don't know, 49 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:23,000 maybe it's twice the age of our own son, maybe 50 00:02:23,039 --> 00:02:26,759 even older. Just think about the sheer cosmic history packed 51 00:02:26,759 --> 00:02:30,919 into it, the different eras of star formation, planet building. 52 00:02:31,439 --> 00:02:34,120 It's like a time capsule from another corner of the galaxy. 53 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:37,639 And it's quite remarkable. This is only the third confirmed 54 00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:40,280 interstellar visitor we've ever spoted. That really tells you something, 55 00:02:40,319 --> 00:02:43,599 doesn't it. Either these events are incredibly rare, or maybe 56 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:45,599 just maybe we haven't been good enough it's spotting them 57 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:47,520 until recently. Just to give you a bit of context, 58 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:50,080 the first one back in twenty seventeen, that was Umua Muha. 59 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:51,680 Speaker 4: You probably remember the fuss around that one. 60 00:02:51,719 --> 00:02:56,319 Speaker 3: This bizarre really elongated like cigar shaped thing tumbling through 61 00:02:56,319 --> 00:03:00,319 our system. It was completely perplexing, mostly because it's showed 62 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:04,479 zero signs of sublimation, no fuzzy coma, no tail as 63 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:07,000 it got near the sun, which is, you know, fundamentally 64 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,159 what comments are supposed to do. We still don't really 65 00:03:09,199 --> 00:03:13,280 truly know what Umua was. The debate continues. Then came 66 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:18,520 to Iborisov. Bursov is kind of the underappreciated middle child 67 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:21,039 now looking back, still incredibly exciting, don't get me wrong, 68 00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:24,400 an object from another's star. But it was well, it 69 00:03:24,439 --> 00:03:27,599 was decidedly less weird than Nua Mua, and certainly less 70 00:03:27,599 --> 00:03:28,759 strange than what we're seeing now. 71 00:03:28,759 --> 00:03:29,639 Speaker 4: With three iyat. 72 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:32,759 Speaker 3: Lists, Borisov basically looked like a commet, acted like a comment. 73 00:03:32,879 --> 00:03:34,960 Speaker 4: It pretty much was a comment, just one from far away. 74 00:03:35,159 --> 00:03:35,680 Still cool. 75 00:03:35,759 --> 00:03:39,039 Speaker 3: Obviously shows that stuff gets exchanged between star systems, but 76 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:42,960 it behaved, you know, predictably. But three iat lists our 77 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,439 current visitor. This is rapidly shaping up to be our 78 00:03:45,439 --> 00:03:48,680 best chance, yet our best opportunity to study something genuinely strange, 79 00:03:48,719 --> 00:03:51,080 genuinely alien in that from elsewhere. Since it's like a 80 00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:54,520 classic detective story unfolding in real time every new clue 81 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:56,800 we find seems to just deepen the mystery, make it 82 00:03:56,840 --> 00:04:00,639 even weirder, more fascinating. Honestly, it's defying expectations left, right, 83 00:04:00,639 --> 00:04:02,879 and center. So what does that mean for us when 84 00:04:02,919 --> 00:04:07,039 something from so incredibly far away, possibly so incredibly old, 85 00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:10,680 behaves so differently from anything in our own cosmic backyard. 86 00:04:11,319 --> 00:04:13,680 This isn't just a footnote for the astronomy textbooks. It 87 00:04:13,719 --> 00:04:17,079 really challenges our basic assumptions about how things form out there, 88 00:04:17,199 --> 00:04:19,600 what they're made of, how they act across the galaxy. 89 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:23,160 It forces us to widen our perspective, to consider possibilities 90 00:04:23,199 --> 00:04:23,800 we hadn't. 91 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:24,480 Speaker 4: Even thought of before. 92 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:27,240 Speaker 5: Speaking of its journey, let's talk about its path because 93 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:29,519 the speed involved here is just It's one of the 94 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:31,519 first things that made everyone sit up and take notice, 95 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:35,439 jaw dropping speed. So the first official sighting was July first, 96 00:04:35,439 --> 00:04:38,879 twenty twenty five. That was by the ATLS system Asteroid 97 00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:42,040 Terrestrial Impact Last Alert System, that's where the name comes 98 00:04:42,079 --> 00:04:45,319 from ATLS, and at that point it was located somewhere 99 00:04:45,319 --> 00:04:47,800 between Jupiter and Mars, still closer to Jupiter, though, But 100 00:04:47,839 --> 00:04:51,399 here's where it gets really interesting, almost comical in a 101 00:04:51,439 --> 00:04:54,720 cosmic sense. We now know it was actually seen even earlier, 102 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:57,920 back on May seven, twenty twenty five. It was accidentally 103 00:04:57,959 --> 00:05:01,519 picked up by Tests, the Transitting So Planet Survey satellite, 104 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:04,319 and Tests well, its job is looking for planets around 105 00:05:04,319 --> 00:05:06,800 other stars, right. It was so busy doing that, sifting 106 00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:09,959 through just mountains of data for tiny dips in starlight, 107 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:13,480 that it completely missed this massive, bright, weird thing cruising 108 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:15,319 right through his field. If you didn't even register at 109 00:05:15,319 --> 00:05:18,560 the time, and back then in May when Tess annoyingly 110 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:21,519 snapped its picture, the object was even further out, somewhere 111 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:22,959 between Satdur and Jupiter. Huh. 112 00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:25,120 Speaker 2: It's like you know when you're tearing the house apart 113 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:28,120 looking for your keys, absolutely convinced you left them somewhere crazy, 114 00:05:28,399 --> 00:05:29,879 and then you realize they were in your pocket the 115 00:05:29,879 --> 00:05:32,079 whole time, or right there on the counter. Tess was 116 00:05:32,079 --> 00:05:35,279 looking for the expected faint signals from far away and 117 00:05:35,319 --> 00:05:38,879 missed this blazing, unexpected visitor right under its nose. But 118 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:42,439 that earlier ghost sighting from Tests, it's such a funny story. 119 00:05:42,439 --> 00:05:45,160 It gives us this incredible baseline. It really hammers home 120 00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:47,279 just how unbelievably fast this thing is moving. 121 00:05:47,319 --> 00:05:48,120 Speaker 5: I mean, think about this. 122 00:05:48,759 --> 00:05:53,399 Speaker 2: NASA's Voyager Probes legendary spacecraft, among the fastest things humanity 123 00:05:53,439 --> 00:05:54,240 has ever built. 124 00:05:54,439 --> 00:05:56,480 Speaker 5: When they launched towards Jupiter, it. 125 00:05:56,439 --> 00:05:58,839 Speaker 2: Took them somewhere between eighteen and twenty three months just 126 00:05:58,879 --> 00:06:01,680 to get Jupiter's orbit. Can now hold onto your hat 127 00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:04,079 for three i atlasts. It was your Jupiter in May. 128 00:06:04,279 --> 00:06:07,000 It's whipping past Mars right now in September. It hits 129 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:09,439 its closest point to the Sun on October twenty ninth, 130 00:06:09,639 --> 00:06:12,800 and by next spring it's already back out near Jupiter's 131 00:06:12,879 --> 00:06:15,480 orbit again heading out. I mean, can you even picture 132 00:06:15,480 --> 00:06:17,600 that kind of speed. It's like a cosmic cannon ball. 133 00:06:17,839 --> 00:06:21,160 It makes you wonder what kind of incredible force flung 134 00:06:21,199 --> 00:06:23,439 it out of its home system, a giant planet, a 135 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:26,319 stellar explosion, What gave it that velocity. 136 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:29,079 Speaker 3: And that incredible speed you just described so well, that's 137 00:06:29,120 --> 00:06:31,759 exactly it. That's how we know with absolute certainty this 138 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:32,920 is an interstellar object. 139 00:06:32,959 --> 00:06:34,000 Speaker 4: It's not just moving fast. 140 00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:36,959 Speaker 3: It's moving too fast, way too fast for our Sun's 141 00:06:36,959 --> 00:06:42,040 gravity to capture it. The technical term is a hyperbolic trajectory. Basically, 142 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:45,199 imagine throwing a ball upwards. If you throw it hard 143 00:06:45,279 --> 00:06:48,160 enough it escapes Earth's gravity. Right, It's the same principle. 144 00:06:48,519 --> 00:06:51,360 This object has so much kinetic energy. It's just sailing 145 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:53,319 through our Solar system on a path that will take 146 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:54,720 it right back out into deep space. 147 00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:56,000 Speaker 4: It won't return. 148 00:06:56,399 --> 00:06:58,680 Speaker 3: If it were one of ours, a comet or asteroid 149 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:01,800 born here, it would be on an elliptical path, looping 150 00:07:01,800 --> 00:07:04,720 around the Sun over and over. But three I Atlas, Nope, 151 00:07:04,759 --> 00:07:08,720 it's just visiting a high speed tourist. And that extreme 152 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:11,839 velocity tells us something important about its history too. It 153 00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:15,040 wasn't just you know, drifting aimlessly through space and happened 154 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:17,160 to wander in. It was likely ejected from its home 155 00:07:17,199 --> 00:07:20,920 system with significant force, maybe a powerful gravitational slingshot from 156 00:07:20,959 --> 00:07:22,600 a huge gas giant, kind of like. 157 00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:24,319 Speaker 4: How we use Jupiter the boost our probes. 158 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:27,279 Speaker 3: Or maybe it got caught up in some chaotic gravitational 159 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:29,639 dance in a dense star cluster billions of years ago. 160 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:34,639 Whatever happened, these hyperbolic paths are unmistakable. They scream outsider, 161 00:07:34,959 --> 00:07:38,439 and that makes three hour Atlas incredibly valuable. It's a sample, 162 00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:41,240 a piece of another star system, delivered right to our doorstep, 163 00:07:41,519 --> 00:07:43,519 offering clues about how things work out there. 164 00:07:43,639 --> 00:07:46,240 Speaker 5: Okay, let's go back to those first test sightings again, 165 00:07:47,199 --> 00:07:49,519 because what's really weird is that even back in May, 166 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:52,839 when it was way out beyond Jupiter, it was already 167 00:07:52,839 --> 00:07:56,639 looking surprisingly bright, and then just over the three weeks 168 00:07:56,680 --> 00:07:59,279 tests happened to be watching that patch of sky, it 169 00:07:59,279 --> 00:08:02,439 got noticed brighter. Now you might think, okay, it's getting 170 00:08:02,439 --> 00:08:06,040 closer to the Sun, things get brighter. Yeah, sure, generally true, 171 00:08:06,319 --> 00:08:09,319 but for astronomers, the amount of brightening and how early 172 00:08:09,399 --> 00:08:13,199 it started immediately set off alarm bells. This was well 173 00:08:13,279 --> 00:08:17,079 weird compared to typical comments from our own neighborhood. So 174 00:08:17,279 --> 00:08:19,879 usually our comments are these big chunks of frozen water 175 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:23,000 mixed with rock and dust and gas. Right they hang 176 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:25,800 out way way out past Neptune and the cold. When 177 00:08:25,839 --> 00:08:27,959 once starts falling towards the Sun, it warms up, and 178 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:29,879 in space that ice does melt a liquid. It goes 179 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:33,039 straight to gas sublimation, that's the word, and that's what 180 00:08:33,080 --> 00:08:35,720 makes a fuzzy halo, the coma, and often the tail, 181 00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:39,080 it's the escaping gas and dust. But for our regular 182 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:42,279 water ice comments, they generally don't start doing that in 183 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:44,919 big way. Don't get really bright and fuzzy until they 184 00:08:44,919 --> 00:08:48,159 get much closer in, usually after they pass Jupiter's orbit, 185 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:50,960 heading towards the asteroid belt where the Sun's heat really 186 00:08:51,039 --> 00:08:54,240 starts to bite. But three I Atlas when test first 187 00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:57,919 saw it, remember May seventh, still way beyond Jupiter, and 188 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:01,000 yet Boom already super bright and getting brighter fast. That 189 00:09:01,039 --> 00:09:04,080 clearly meant significant sublimation was already happening way out there 190 00:09:04,080 --> 00:09:06,279 in the cold. This is not what water ice does. 191 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:09,960 It's a huge contrast to Omu Wua, which famously showed 192 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:12,120 no signs of sublimation at all, as just this inert 193 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:15,639 tumbling rock seemingly. And it's also totally different from two 194 00:09:15,679 --> 00:09:18,320 eyebores off which, okay, it was interstellar, but it acted 195 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:22,240 like a perfectly normal water ice commet, sublimating predictably. It's 196 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:24,600 almost like these three visitors are polar opposites, and how 197 00:09:24,639 --> 00:09:27,360 they behave I remember seeing Comet hail Bop years ago, 198 00:09:27,399 --> 00:09:31,679 that amazing tale. It was majestic, but you know, follow 199 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:34,120 the rules. Three eye Atlass seems determined to break them. 200 00:09:34,159 --> 00:09:35,039 Why what's it made of? 201 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:40,200 Speaker 3: Exactly that early brightness, that early sublimation is one. 202 00:09:40,039 --> 00:09:42,440 Speaker 4: Of the absolute biggest clues right off the bat. 203 00:09:42,919 --> 00:09:45,720 Speaker 3: It tells us immediately that if three Eyetlias is a comet, 204 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:48,519 it's made of something very different from the water ice 205 00:09:48,559 --> 00:09:51,320 dominated commets. We know it has to be something much 206 00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:54,720 more volatile, something that turns into gas at much much 207 00:09:54,759 --> 00:09:56,320 lower temperatures than a water ice. 208 00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:57,799 Speaker 4: This isn't just a minor tweak. 209 00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:00,759 Speaker 3: It flags it instantly as a fun unda mentally different 210 00:10:00,879 --> 00:10:03,519 kind of object. It stretches our definition of comet and 211 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:06,240 hints at different ingredients being common in other star systems. 212 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:09,519 It's like discovering a whole new category of celestial beast. 213 00:10:10,120 --> 00:10:11,879 But just when we were trying to figure out what 214 00:10:11,879 --> 00:10:15,440 could be causing that early activity, things got even weirder. 215 00:10:15,799 --> 00:10:18,919 As astronomers tracked it through July and August. It developed 216 00:10:18,919 --> 00:10:21,159 a coma, which is normal, and then a tail started 217 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:24,600 to form, also normal, except the tail started growing in well, 218 00:10:24,679 --> 00:10:27,720 basically the wrong direction. It was initially pointing towards the Sun. 219 00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:29,960 Now to get why that's so bizarre, you have to 220 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:31,799 remember the Sun isn't just light and heat. 221 00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:34,919 Speaker 4: It's constantly blowing out the stream of charged particles as 222 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:35,559 solar wind. 223 00:10:35,879 --> 00:10:38,200 Speaker 3: Think of it like a giant fan always on that 224 00:10:38,399 --> 00:10:42,320 solar wind plus the pressure from sunlight itself normally pushes 225 00:10:42,320 --> 00:10:44,399 the gas and dust away from the sun. That's what 226 00:10:44,519 --> 00:10:47,759 forms the classic comet tail, always pointing away. The analogy 227 00:10:47,799 --> 00:10:49,600 I love is the dog sticking its head out a 228 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:52,960 car window, right the wind pushes its ears and floppy 229 00:10:53,039 --> 00:10:53,639 jowls back. 230 00:10:53,759 --> 00:10:55,279 Speaker 4: It's adorable. We all know the look. 231 00:10:55,440 --> 00:10:58,080 Speaker 3: Now, imagine that dog sticks its head out and somehow 232 00:10:58,120 --> 00:11:01,279 its face stretches forward into the way or its ears 233 00:11:01,279 --> 00:11:01,840 fly forward. 234 00:11:01,879 --> 00:11:02,919 Speaker 4: It makes no sense, does it. 235 00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:06,000 Speaker 3: And that's pretty much why astronomers were, as Source said, 236 00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:09,559 kind of baffled. A tail pointing towards the solar wind source. 237 00:11:09,639 --> 00:11:12,600 It defies basic physics as we understand it. For comments, 238 00:11:12,919 --> 00:11:15,799 it suggests there's some other force at play, or maybe 239 00:11:15,840 --> 00:11:17,840 the particles coming off this thing or interacting with the 240 00:11:17,879 --> 00:11:21,639 solar wind in a completely unexpected way, different charge, different density. 241 00:11:21,639 --> 00:11:22,080 Speaker 4: We don't know. 242 00:11:22,399 --> 00:11:25,440 Speaker 3: It's a fundamental puzzle about how commets actually work, or 243 00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:26,480 at least how this one works. 244 00:11:26,639 --> 00:11:29,720 Speaker 5: Okay, so you've got this object moving it insane speeds, 245 00:11:29,799 --> 00:11:32,639 lighting up way too early, growing a tail backwards. I mean, 246 00:11:32,639 --> 00:11:35,320 the questions were just piling up, right, So that led 247 00:11:35,320 --> 00:11:39,399 to this huge coordinated effort basically pointing all our best 248 00:11:39,399 --> 00:11:42,240 siyes towards it. We're talking Hubble still going strong, the 249 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:46,759 incredibly powerful James Webspace telescope looking and infra red even 250 00:11:46,799 --> 00:11:49,399 sphere X, you know that sort of cone shaped satellite 251 00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:51,639 that usually maps the early universe. They pointed that at 252 00:11:51,679 --> 00:11:53,480 it too, and tests the one that missed it the 253 00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:55,759 first time. They had to take another look, this time 254 00:11:55,799 --> 00:11:59,200 knowing exactly what to focus on. A real all hands 255 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:02,200 on deck moment for astronomy. And it seems like NASA's 256 00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:05,639 most advanced observatory, presumably Web gave us some of the 257 00:12:05,720 --> 00:12:09,600 biggest breakthroughs so far. But what this thing's actually made of? Though, 258 00:12:09,879 --> 00:12:11,879 naturally the answer has just led to even more questions. 259 00:12:11,879 --> 00:12:14,080 It's always the way, isn't it? The biggest finding the 260 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:16,960 real jaw dropper that coma the fuzzy cloud around three 261 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:21,200 I atlas. It's made almost entirely of carbon dioxide CO two. 262 00:12:21,639 --> 00:12:23,559 Now that immediately tells you this is not your standard 263 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:25,720 issue water ice comet from our neck of the woods. 264 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:28,120 It does have some water, they detected that too, but 265 00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:30,919 the ratio, get this, it's eight part CO two for 266 00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:33,600 every one part water. To put that in perspective, that's 267 00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:36,559 something like sixteen times more CO two than you'd typically 268 00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:39,080 expect to see boiling off an average comet in our 269 00:12:39,080 --> 00:12:42,639 solar system. It's completely flipped. And this SETO two cloud 270 00:12:42,759 --> 00:12:45,799 it's enormous. They estimate the radiuses up to three hundred 271 00:12:45,879 --> 00:12:49,480 thousand kilometers. That's what over half the diameter of the Sun. 272 00:12:49,879 --> 00:12:53,399 Just this huge gassy halo, way way bigger than anyone 273 00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:56,559 guessed from those earlier sightings. And seeing that massive cloud 274 00:12:56,639 --> 00:12:58,559 made them rethink the size of the solid core, the 275 00:12:58,559 --> 00:13:01,679 actual object hidden inside. At first Smiths where I be 276 00:13:01,759 --> 00:13:04,279 up to twenty kilometers across. Then they revise it down 277 00:13:04,279 --> 00:13:07,399 maybe eleven kilometers. But now seeing how much CO two 278 00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:09,799 is pumping out, the latest thinking is the solid core 279 00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:12,759 could be as big as forty six kilometers wid which 280 00:13:12,799 --> 00:13:15,960 is big, sure, but not record breaking. We've seen bigger 281 00:13:15,960 --> 00:13:18,279 common nuclei in our own system. The key thing isn't 282 00:13:18,279 --> 00:13:21,480 the size, it's that composition, that overwhelming CO two versus 283 00:13:21,519 --> 00:13:23,240 so little water. We just never seen anything like it. 284 00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:26,000 It's the total opposite of what we'd expect exactly right. 285 00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:27,320 Speaker 4: That's CO two dominance. 286 00:13:27,320 --> 00:13:29,360 Speaker 3: The fact that as one source put it, the ratios 287 00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:33,679 are all wrong. That's incredibly significant. It tells us pretty definitively, 288 00:13:34,120 --> 00:13:36,879 this object formed in a star system with very different 289 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:41,120 starting materials, different abundances of elements, maybe different temperatures where 290 00:13:41,159 --> 00:13:43,879 it formed compared to where our comets formed. This isn't 291 00:13:43,879 --> 00:13:46,639 just a minor variation. It points to fundamentally different cosmic 292 00:13:46,720 --> 00:13:49,120 chemistry in its birthplace, and that is what makes three 293 00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:53,240 I atlas feel so genuinely alien. Are models for how 294 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:56,279 planets and comets form, you know, predicting ratios of volatile 295 00:13:56,279 --> 00:13:58,679 stuff like water and CO two based on distance from 296 00:13:58,679 --> 00:14:00,960 the star. Those models are low largely built on what 297 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:03,720 we see here. This object doesn't just nudge those models, 298 00:14:03,759 --> 00:14:05,960 it kind of blows them up. So yeah, if our 299 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:08,679 theory say you should get certain ratios depending on where 300 00:14:08,679 --> 00:14:12,159 in the protoplanetary disc, something forms well in eight point 301 00:14:12,200 --> 00:14:15,320 one CO two to water ratio just doesn't fit easily anywhere. 302 00:14:15,399 --> 00:14:18,159 Makes you ask was its parents star different somehow, maybe 303 00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:21,039 lower metallicity or a different type of star altogether, or 304 00:14:21,080 --> 00:14:23,960 did it form incredibly far out in a region far 305 00:14:24,080 --> 00:14:26,840 far colder than even our ort cloud where CO two 306 00:14:26,879 --> 00:14:29,399 ice would be way more common and stable than water ice. 307 00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:32,360 These aren't small questions. They poke at the core assumptions 308 00:14:32,399 --> 00:14:35,679 we make about how universal these formation processes are. This 309 00:14:35,759 --> 00:14:38,879 thing is like finding a biological specimen with a completely 310 00:14:38,919 --> 00:14:42,639 different genetic code. It's a potential Rosetta stone for other 311 00:14:42,720 --> 00:14:46,360 stellar chemistries. And then, as if the totally bonkers CO 312 00:14:46,559 --> 00:14:50,360 two ratio wasn't enough, there was another discovery this summer, 313 00:14:50,399 --> 00:14:53,399 another real head scratcher. This came from observations using the 314 00:14:53,519 --> 00:14:56,120 very Large Telescope down in Chile. And yes, that really 315 00:14:56,159 --> 00:14:58,720 is its name. It's quite literal. It's actually four huge 316 00:14:58,759 --> 00:15:03,360 telescopes working together, very large indeed. Anyway, the VLTA managed 317 00:15:03,399 --> 00:15:06,000 to detect the clear signature of nickel metal in the 318 00:15:06,039 --> 00:15:09,360 coma of three eye outlets. Okay, interesting metals and comments 319 00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:11,840 are unheard of. But here's the kicker. They couldn't find 320 00:15:11,879 --> 00:15:13,759 any trace of iron metal along. 321 00:15:13,519 --> 00:15:14,840 Speaker 4: With it, just nickel. 322 00:15:15,039 --> 00:15:17,240 Speaker 3: Now if that sounds weird to you, good it should, 323 00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:20,480 because it's incredibly weird to the scientific community too. See, 324 00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:23,679 in the universe, iron and nickel are like cosmic buddies. 325 00:15:23,639 --> 00:15:24,399 Speaker 4: Natural partners. 326 00:15:24,399 --> 00:15:26,639 Speaker 3: So there are two most common heavy metals out there, 327 00:15:26,919 --> 00:15:30,000 and that's because they're forged together deep inside massive stars 328 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:33,519 before they die and then scattered everywhere by supernoga explosions. 329 00:15:33,559 --> 00:15:37,559 It's this epic cosmic process. So because they're made together 330 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:40,159 and thrown out together, you basically always find them together 331 00:15:40,279 --> 00:15:43,000 in space, rocks, asteroids, planet cores, you name it, Iron 332 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:44,240 and nickel hand in hand. 333 00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:45,879 Speaker 4: The only time we ever really see. 334 00:15:45,759 --> 00:15:47,759 Speaker 3: Nickel by itself separated from iron is when we do 335 00:15:47,799 --> 00:15:51,519 it humans in industrial processes here on Earth, like making 336 00:15:51,559 --> 00:15:56,200 stainless steel or alloys. So the massive question becomes, how 337 00:15:56,320 --> 00:15:59,679 on Earth, or rather how out there in space did 338 00:15:59,759 --> 00:16:02,759 nick we'll get into this comet's como without bringing its. 339 00:16:02,639 --> 00:16:04,039 Speaker 4: Buddy iron along for the ride. 340 00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:06,720 Speaker 3: It's a great question, and the answer right now is 341 00:16:07,159 --> 00:16:10,240 we have no idea. It's genuinely baffly. This lone nickel 342 00:16:10,279 --> 00:16:12,919 finding just doesn't fit our understanding of how elements are 343 00:16:12,919 --> 00:16:15,279 made and distributed in the cosmos. Does it point some 344 00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:18,080 totally unknown natural process in its home system, some weird 345 00:16:18,159 --> 00:16:21,480 chemical separation in the nebula we've never imagined, or hmm, well, 346 00:16:21,559 --> 00:16:24,679 does it hint at something else, some artificial It's a 347 00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:28,000 finding that just hangs there, challenging everything we thought we 348 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:29,639 knew about cosmic metallurgy. 349 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:33,840 Speaker 5: Okay, so let's just recap the weirdness level here. Insane 350 00:16:33,879 --> 00:16:37,759 speed check, lighting up way too early, check, tail growing backwards, check, 351 00:16:37,799 --> 00:16:41,480 totally bizarre co two rich composition check, and now nickel 352 00:16:41,519 --> 00:16:44,799 without iron check. It's like a cosmic mystery checklist, so 353 00:16:45,399 --> 00:16:50,000 inevitably inexorably. This brings us around to well, everyone's favorite 354 00:16:50,039 --> 00:16:53,759 explanation when things get really weird aliens. And look, let's 355 00:16:53,759 --> 00:16:56,919 be fair here that people proposing these more speculative ideas 356 00:16:56,919 --> 00:16:58,440 aren't just pulling them out of thin air, as you 357 00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:00,879 said earlier. What they're doing is take all this genuinely 358 00:17:00,919 --> 00:17:03,679 anomalous data, all the stuff we just listed, and trying 359 00:17:03,679 --> 00:17:07,240 to weave a narrative, a hypothesis, however, speculative that could 360 00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:11,319 potentially explain all of it together. It's thinking outside the box, right, 361 00:17:11,559 --> 00:17:14,240 pushing the boundaries when the standard explanation seems stretched thin. 362 00:17:14,559 --> 00:17:17,160 It's part of exploring the possibility space, even the really 363 00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:19,519 exotic parts. Take the brightness issue again, how did it 364 00:17:19,559 --> 00:17:22,079 get so bright so early, way out past Jupiter. Sure, 365 00:17:22,119 --> 00:17:24,200 getting closer to the Sun helps, but scientists agree it 366 00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:26,880 doesn't explain the sheer level of brightness observed back then. 367 00:17:27,279 --> 00:17:30,319 So the mainstream scientific explanation is well gets packed with 368 00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:32,440 CO two, which the sublimates easily even in the cold 369 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:35,920 outer Solar system, makes sense vodicle composition, or the more 370 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:39,240 speculative take, maybe it's an alien probe that started turning 371 00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:41,680 on its systems, powering up its lights as it entered 372 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:45,359 our solar system, maybe for observation or communication. The brightness 373 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:49,440 isn't sublimation, it's technology. And what about that gigantic cloud 374 00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:52,119 of CO two, the one almost half the size of 375 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:54,680 the sun. Well one theory is floating arounds is that 376 00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:57,519 maybe three Ialyis isn't commet at all, but a huge 377 00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:01,599 engineered spacecraft and maybe full of living organisms. Maybe not 378 00:18:01,720 --> 00:18:04,920 like us, but something alive that breathe out CO two 379 00:18:05,039 --> 00:18:07,920 is waste, just like animals on Earth, and they're simply 380 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:10,799 venting all that waste CO two out into space. Hence 381 00:18:10,839 --> 00:18:14,039 the giant cloud. It's biological exhaust. And then there's the 382 00:18:14,079 --> 00:18:17,680 even wilder idea almost science fiction territory that I've seen. Man, 383 00:18:18,039 --> 00:18:20,000 what if three i Atlis isn't carrying life? What if 384 00:18:20,039 --> 00:18:23,079 it is like a giant, single organism. Maybe silicon based, 385 00:18:23,079 --> 00:18:26,960 maybe something else entirely just cruising through space, consuming dust 386 00:18:27,039 --> 00:18:29,279 and gas for energy and releasing CO two is its 387 00:18:29,279 --> 00:18:32,799 own metabolic byproduct. A living comment that really stretches the 388 00:18:32,799 --> 00:18:36,640 definition of alien, doesn't It makes you reconsider what life 389 00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:38,920 even means on a cosmic scale. 390 00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:41,240 Speaker 3: And here's the really interesting part, the bit that makes 391 00:18:41,319 --> 00:18:45,000 us so compelling Right now, as of today, scientifically speaking, 392 00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:47,000 no one can stand up and say with one hundred 393 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:50,160 percent absolute certainty that those wilder ideas are wrong. Now, 394 00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:53,359 let's be very clear, it's probably not a giant space 395 00:18:53,359 --> 00:18:56,759 well venting CO two. The scientific principle of Okham's razor 396 00:18:56,839 --> 00:18:59,839 suggests we stick with simpler explanations until the evidence for 397 00:19:00,039 --> 00:19:03,680 rues us elsewhere. But the key point is the data 398 00:19:03,839 --> 00:19:08,119 is so strange, so unprecedented, that our current natural explanations 399 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:11,440 are also being stretched. They don't perfectly fit everything yet, 400 00:19:11,519 --> 00:19:15,480 so we can't definitively rule out these more extraordinary possibilities 401 00:19:15,599 --> 00:19:19,119 just yet. They remain hovering in that fascinating, if unlikely 402 00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:22,920 realm of not impossible. And the exact same logic applies 403 00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:25,799 to that baffling nickel without iron discovery, since we have 404 00:19:25,880 --> 00:19:28,599 no known natural process that explains it. You can't hand 405 00:19:28,599 --> 00:19:31,359 on heart say it's definitively not artificial. Perhaps it's a 406 00:19:31,359 --> 00:19:33,880 piece of alien technology made with alloys or processes we 407 00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:37,480 don't understand. Again, it's probably not. The bar for proving 408 00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:40,519 alien technology is incredibly high, as it should be. You 409 00:19:40,599 --> 00:19:43,599 need more than just one unexplained anomaly. But that inability 410 00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:47,519 to provide a slam dunk natural explanation keeps the speculative 411 00:19:47,519 --> 00:19:51,319 door slightly ajar. And this uncertainty, this gap between the 412 00:19:51,319 --> 00:19:54,880 strange data and our current understanding, is precisely why everyone 413 00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:58,000 is working so frantically. This is why astronomers are pushing 414 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:01,920 telescopes to their limits, why engine are calculating trajectories, why 415 00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:03,440 theorists are debating models. 416 00:20:03,599 --> 00:20:05,400 Speaker 4: They're desperately trying to gather more. 417 00:20:05,319 --> 00:20:08,079 Speaker 3: Data, more clues, to close that gap, to learn as 418 00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:10,599 much as possible in this incredibly short window we have 419 00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:12,319 before it gets lost in the sun's glare and then 420 00:20:12,559 --> 00:20:15,960 heads back out into the void. It's the scientific method 421 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:19,559 in overdrive, trying to move from possible to probable to 422 00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:22,960 understood when faced with something truly unknown, and it forces 423 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:26,559 all of us, you included, to think critically about evidence, probability, 424 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:28,519 and how we confront the truly unexpected. 425 00:20:28,599 --> 00:20:31,400 Speaker 5: So time is definitely taking. What chances do we have 426 00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:33,240 left to get a closer look at this thing before 427 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:35,920 it vanishes behind the sun. Well, there's a pretty cool 428 00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:39,359 opportunity coming up very soon. In early October, three i 429 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:42,400 Atlas is going to make a relatively close pass by Mars. 430 00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:46,319 It'll come within about twenty eight million kilometers. Now, okay, 431 00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:48,440 twenty eight million kilometers is still a heck of a 432 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:51,960 long way, but it's close enough apparently for two European 433 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:56,039 spacecraft currently orbiting Mars. To get a decent look. The 434 00:20:56,079 --> 00:20:58,279 European Space Agency is going to use both it's Mars 435 00:20:58,279 --> 00:21:02,240 Express Orbiter and the XMR Trace gas orbiter. These probes 436 00:21:02,279 --> 00:21:05,960 have really good cameras, high resolution stuff, color imaging systems, 437 00:21:05,960 --> 00:21:09,200 all designed for studying Mars in detail. They're basically going 438 00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:11,680 to turn those cameras outwards for a bit try and 439 00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:13,880 snag some images of three i at Lists as it 440 00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:16,960 flies by. Now, we need to keep expectations realistic, right. 441 00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:18,240 It's not gonna be like a close up from a 442 00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:21,119 sci fi movie. We won't see surface features or alien 443 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:23,440 riding on the side, but the hope. The real goal 444 00:21:23,559 --> 00:21:25,559 is that the images might be sharp enough to distinguish 445 00:21:25,559 --> 00:21:29,000 between that huge, fuzzy CO two cloud and whatever solid 446 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:32,000 object is hiding in the middle. If we're lucky, maybe, 447 00:21:32,279 --> 00:21:34,440 just maybe we can get a sense of the actual 448 00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:37,079 shape of the core. Is it long and skinny like ohmmua? 449 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:40,359 Is it more like a potato or roughly spherical? Just 450 00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:42,720 knowing the basic shape would be a massive clue about 451 00:21:42,759 --> 00:21:45,400 how it formed and what it might be. After that 452 00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:49,240 Mars fly by later on October, it disappears behind the 453 00:21:49,279 --> 00:21:51,680 Sun from our perspective here on Earth. We won't pick 454 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:53,759 it up again until December, and by then it'll be 455 00:21:53,799 --> 00:21:56,119 well on its way out, heading back towards the outer 456 00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:56,799 Solar System. 457 00:21:56,960 --> 00:22:01,759 Speaker 3: But there is potentially one last chance, final intriguing possibility 458 00:22:01,799 --> 00:22:05,440 for observation as it makes its grand exit on March sixteenth, 459 00:22:05,559 --> 00:22:07,319 twenty twenty six, So about a year and a half 460 00:22:07,319 --> 00:22:10,160 from now, three IAT lists will fly past Jupiter again 461 00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:13,240 at a pretty hefty distance around fifty three million kilometers. 462 00:22:13,279 --> 00:22:14,559 Speaker 4: But here's the interesting bit. 463 00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:18,920 Speaker 3: We have a probe there one very capable spacecraft currently 464 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:24,279 orbiting Jupiter, NASA's Juno pro Geno's an older mission incredibly successful. 465 00:22:24,279 --> 00:22:27,400 It's been studying Jupiter since twenty sixteen, giving us amazing 466 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:31,440 data about its atmosphere, its magnetic field, its deep interior. Now, 467 00:22:31,519 --> 00:22:34,119 Geno's primary mission is actually scheduled to end in September 468 00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:36,839 twenty twenty five, next year, and the current plan is 469 00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:39,720 just to deliberately crash it into Jupiter. It's a standard 470 00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:43,480 procedure to avoid contaminating Jupiter's potentially life bearing moons, and 471 00:22:43,519 --> 00:22:45,680 you get some bonus data on the way down. However, 472 00:22:45,880 --> 00:22:49,759 this flyby threeiatis offers a tantalizing alternative, a potentially much 473 00:22:49,759 --> 00:22:52,160 more exciting end of life mission for Juno. Instead of 474 00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:55,640 crashing into Jupiter, Maybe, just maybe, NASA could extend Juno's 475 00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:58,240 mission slightly and tried redirected to intercept threeiatlists as it 476 00:22:58,279 --> 00:23:00,559 flies past Jupiter on its way out. In an older 477 00:23:00,559 --> 00:23:03,880 probe Blake Juno getting relatively close, well fifty three million 478 00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:07,119 kilometers is close in this context, could gather invaluable data. 479 00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:09,319 It could get much better readings of the coma's composition. 480 00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:12,279 Maybe study the particles in that weird tale up close 481 00:23:12,599 --> 00:23:13,640 as it recedes. 482 00:23:13,319 --> 00:23:13,839 Speaker 4: From the Sun. 483 00:23:14,279 --> 00:23:17,720 Speaker 3: Perhaps even detect faint magnetic fields or plasma interactions that 484 00:23:17,759 --> 00:23:20,039 we just can't see from Earth or even with web. 485 00:23:20,279 --> 00:23:23,440 It would be an absolutely fantastic final chapter for Juno, 486 00:23:23,559 --> 00:23:26,440 giving us one last precious data set on this utterly 487 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,680 bizarre object before it loves us forever. So yeah, it's 488 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:31,839 weird and fascinating as studying this thing has been so far, 489 00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:33,599 the story definitely isn't over yet. 490 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:35,480 Speaker 4: There's still potentially a lot more to learn. 491 00:23:35,559 --> 00:23:38,680 Speaker 2: Wow, what an absolutely incredible story this is turning out 492 00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:40,839 to be. This deep dive has really taken us on 493 00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:43,559 a journey, hasn't it. We started with that almost misciting 494 00:23:43,839 --> 00:23:47,200 way out past Jupiter, then the mind blowing speed confirming 495 00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:49,920 it came from another star. We puzzled over why it 496 00:23:50,039 --> 00:23:52,759 lit up so bright so early, scratched our heads about 497 00:23:52,759 --> 00:23:56,319 that tail growing the wrong way. Then came the composition shocker, 498 00:23:56,519 --> 00:24:01,279 overwhelmingly carbon dioxide, completely unlike our comments, and topped off 499 00:24:01,319 --> 00:24:04,440 with that genuinely weird discovery of nickel just floating around 500 00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:07,839 on its own without any iron. It's just anomaly after anomaly. 501 00:24:08,240 --> 00:24:11,359 We even dipped our toes into the alien theories, acknowledging 502 00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:13,440 that when the data gets this strange, you have to 503 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:16,079 at least consider the fringes, even if you know it's 504 00:24:16,079 --> 00:24:19,519 probably not aliens. For you listening, the journey of understanding 505 00:24:19,559 --> 00:24:22,920 three iatlis is happening right now in real time, and 506 00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:25,319 this object, well, it really does put the deep into 507 00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:27,759 deep space, doesn't it. It's a perfect reminder that the 508 00:24:27,839 --> 00:24:30,359 universe is full of surprises, always ready to throw us 509 00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:33,000 a curveball to challenge what we think we know, and honestly, 510 00:24:33,279 --> 00:24:35,079 that's what makes following this stuff so much fun. 511 00:24:35,119 --> 00:24:38,400 Speaker 6: We will get more answers from those upcoming observations, hopefully, 512 00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:40,799 but I bet we'll also end up with just as 513 00:24:40,839 --> 00:24:43,920 many new questions, maybe even deeper ones. And that's the 514 00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:46,480 real excitement of science, isn't it That constant cycle of 515 00:24:46,519 --> 00:24:47,839 discovery and new mysteries. 516 00:24:48,119 --> 00:24:49,480 Speaker 4: It absolutely is. 517 00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:53,079 Speaker 3: And maybe, as we watch three iatlists head back out 518 00:24:53,119 --> 00:24:56,920 towards the interstellar void, here's a final thought to ponder if, 519 00:24:57,200 --> 00:25:00,480 and it's a big if, but worth considering, if this object, 520 00:25:00,599 --> 00:25:03,640 with its weird CO two dominance and solo nickel, actually 521 00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:06,240 represents something normal for comets in its home system, a 522 00:25:06,279 --> 00:25:08,960 system perhaps twice as old as ours. What does that 523 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:12,119 imply about the raw materials, the basic chemistry available in 524 00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:15,079 other parts of the galaxy, especially in older stellar neighborhoods. 525 00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:18,240 What other completely wrong ratios might be out there. What 526 00:25:18,279 --> 00:25:22,039 other fundamental differences in how elements combine and form celestial 527 00:25:22,079 --> 00:25:25,200 bodies are waiting to be discovered three I atlas. This 528 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:28,400 one fleeting visitor forces us to confront the sheer, almost 529 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:32,559 unimaginable diversity that must exist across the Milky Way. The universe, 530 00:25:32,599 --> 00:25:35,680 it seems, has an infinite capacity to astonish us and, 531 00:25:35,759 --> 00:25:38,240 perhaps most importantly, to keep us asking questions.