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The size of 3I/ATLAS from non-gravitational acceleration
John C. Forbes, Harvey Butler, 2025. arXiv.
Converts the acceleration into a mass-loss rate and matches it to JWST, SPHEREx, ALMA and TRAPPIST production rates, finding a diameter of about 0.8-1.05 km for an assumed density of 0.5 g per cubic centimetre, with a large systematic uncertainty.
What it's used for here
The mass-balance size estimate for 3I; smaller than the 1.3 km Hubble radius, within its stated systematics.
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Research copy, for editors and curators. The work is arXiv-nonexclusive, so readers are sent to it. We keep this copy so the citation can be checked if the page changes or goes.
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1I/'Oumuamua
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Cite it
Forbes, J. C., & Butler, H. (2025). The size of 3I/ATLAS from non-gravitational acceleration. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/ae3747
@article{forbes2025size,
author = {Forbes, John C. and Butler, Harvey},
title = {The size of 3I/ATLAS from non-gravitational acceleration},
journal = {arXiv},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.3847/2515-5172/ae3747},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.18341}
}TY - GEN TI - The size of 3I/ATLAS from non-gravitational acceleration AU - Forbes, John C. AU - Butler, Harvey PY - 2025 JO - arXiv DO - 10.3847/2515-5172/ae3747 UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.18341 ER -
Forbes, John C. and Harvey Butler. “The size of 3I/ATLAS from non-gravitational acceleration.” arXiv (2025). https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/ae3747.