3I/ATLASEvidence
Evidence · 3I/ATLAS
Mass loss and push agree on a kilometre-sized body
Balancing the measured mass loss against the non-gravitational acceleration gives a diameter of 0.82 to 1.05 km; Loeb's group gets a radius of 0.42 km if CO2 drives it and 0.74 to 1.15 km if water does.
What it means
Openunchanged
Still possibleunchanged
What it implies
- An independent, dynamical route to the same size range.For the key question: How big is the nucleus of 3I/ATLAS?
- The size depends on which gas is pushing.For: Which gas carries the push: carbon dioxide, water or carbon monoxide?
Next steps 1
1
Fit the last Hubble DD 18152 visits for nucleus size
Could decideFair odds~40 h
10score
Details
The final visits (March to April 2026, beyond 5 au) had the faintest coma. A radius fit with coma subtraction that lands inside 0.35-1.8 km would settle the size; one outside would reopen it. The data are public in MAST.
Ranked by how likely each is to move the key question, for the time it takes
Sources 2
SRC
SRC
Cite it
Mysteries Department. (2026). Mass loss and push agree on a kilometre-sized body [Evidence EVD0DFQ47T6M9BD]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DFQ47T6M9BD
@misc{mysteriesdept_evd0dfq47t6m9bd,
title = {Mass loss and push agree on a kilometre-sized body},
author = {{Mysteries Department}},
year = {2026},
note = {Evidence, catalog key EVD0DFQ47T6M9BD},
url = {https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DFQ47T6M9BD}
}