From a Different Star: 3I/ATLAS in the Context of the Ōtautahi–Oxford Interstellar Object Population Model
2025/07/07 by Matthew J. Hopkins, Rosemary C. Dorsey, Hopkins, Matthew J. +10 · 12 voices · 22 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Astro and Planetary Science #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/adfbf4
Abstract
Abstract The discovery of the third interstellar object (ISO), 3I/ATLAS (“3I”), provides a rare chance to directly observe a small body from another solar system. Studying its chemistry and dynamics will add to our understanding of how the processes of planetesimal formation and evolution happen across the Milky Way’s disk, and how such objects respond to the Milky Way’s potential. In this Letter, we present a first assessment of 3I in the context of the Ōtautahi–Oxford model, which uses data from Gaia in conjunction with models of protoplanetary disk chemistry and Galactic dynamics to predict the properties of the ISO population. The model shows that both the velocity and radiant of 3I are within the expected range. Its velocity predicts an age of over 7.6 Gyr and a high water mass fraction, which may become observable shortly. We also conclude that it is very unlikely that 3I shares an origin with either of the previous two ISO detections.
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Discussions
- It's paper day! We use our Ōtautahi-Oxford model of the Galaxy's interstellar object population to understand the origins of 3I/ATLAS, from only its velocity @astrohopkins.bsky.social, Dorsey, @redshi [bsky, 104 points, 4 comments]
- Posting our paper, out today in preprint, for the western hemisphere crowd. Predictions and deductions about our new interstellar visitor, 3I/ATLAS, from our Ōtautahi-Oxford model arxiv.org/abs/2507.0 [bsky, 31 points, 2 comments]
- There's an update about 3I/ATLAS! Although the paper is yet to go through the peer-review process (arxiv.org/pdf/2507.05318), it seems that 3I/ATLAS could originate from our Galaxy's thick disk, makin [bsky, 25 points, 1 comments]
- Even though we've observed just 3 interstellar objects, astronomers are developing detailed models of how these objects are distributed through our galaxy. From orbit shapes & velocity, they can also [bsky, 20 points, 0 comments]
- Per @astrohopkins.bsky.social et al. 2025: arxiv.org/pdf/2507.05318 "From a Different Star: 3I/ATLAS in the context of the Ōtautahi-Oxford interstellar object population model" It is only possible to [bsky, 7 points, 3 comments]
- Read more at: ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre... A pre-print of the research paper is available at arXiv at: arxiv.org/abs/2507.05318 [bsky, 5 points, 0 comments]
- Another paper on the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS! 🇬🇧🇳🇿🇫🇮 From a Different Star: 3I/ATLAS in the context of the Ōtautahi-Oxford interstellar object population model Hopkins, Dorsey, @redshiftless [bsky, 4 points, 0 comments]
- 3I/ATLAS in the context of Otautahi–Oxford interstellar object population model [hn, 2 points, 0 comments]
- Sweet! I wonder how this compares to Hopkins et al.'s prediction of a "water ice-rich composition" for 3I/ATLAS and Galactic thick disk ISOs? arxiv.org/pdf/2507.05318 [bsky, 1 points, 2 comments]
- From a Different Star: 3I/ATLAS in the context of the Ōtautahi-Oxford ISO model [hn, 1 points, 0 comments]
- arxiv.org/pdf/2507.05318 [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
- Today on the # arXiv : Hopkins et al. 2025, "From a Different Star: 3I/ATLAS in the context of the Ōtautahi-Oxford interstellar object population model" - https:// arxiv.org/abs/2507.05318 [mastodon, 0 points, 0 comments]
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