“Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Reveals Frigid Birthplace Through Heavy Hydrogen in Methane” — what this page in the network covers. The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, which passed through our solar system in 2019, is giving scientists a rare glimpse into the conditions of another planetary system. New analysis of its methane shows an unusually high ratio of heavy hydrogen (deuterium) to normal hydrogen, a chemical fingerprint that New analysis of its methane shows an unusually high ratio of heavy hydrogen (deuterium) to normal hydrogen, a chemical fingerprint that points to an intensely cold birthplace.
This suggests the comet's ices formed either in the outer reaches of a distant star's protoplanetary disk or in the cold molecular cloud that preceded it. The discovery, reported by researchers studying 3I/ATLAS, provides the first detailed look at the chemistry of material from another star system. The full version stays on the original page, which this listing opens directly.