Stars and Aliens
While the buzz around Astronomer is fading, I think it is far better to talk about astronomy.
Every so often I want to take a break from the world of tech or business and think about something completely different. Summer is the perfect time when you can stay outside, look at stars and ponder the universe, life and everything.
One interesting event happening right now is the passing of 3I/ATLAS through our Solar System. What's interesting - among many things - is that it is an interstellar object. An astronomical object in interstellar space that is not gravitationally bound to a star.
The estimates are that these types of objects are passing through our Solar System every year, yet the 3I/ATLAS is so far the third such object which we detected. To boost your humanic (is that a word? now it is) ego, you might be pleased to know that humans sent out space probe Voyager 1 which escaped to interstellar space in 2012 and has been traveling through space for almost 48 years!!! Note to aspiring engineers: How do you build technology which should operate in harsh conditions for 60 years with no possibility to replace any part, change any battery, or press the 'restart' button.
The other interesting thing is that the 3I/ATLAS might be older than the Solar System. Imagine, on October 29th of this year, you will be just 203 million kilometers (126 million miles) from an object which is older than the place you grew up in!
And if by any chance you thought that astronomy is free of any controversies, you will be pleasantly surprised! Astrophysicist Avi Loeb with several other collaborators published a paper 'Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology?' Nothing starts an academia fight faster than these words 'The eclipse by the Sun from Earth of 3I/ATLAS at perihelion, would allow it to conduct a clandestine reverse Solar Oberth Manoeuvre, an optimal high-thrust strategy for interstellar spacecraft to brake and stay bound to the Sun.' We will find out soon.
This object was identified by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) which has the primary objective of identifying smaller objects which might hit Earth. The system comprises 5 telescopes around the globe - Hawaii (two of them), South Africa, Chile and Spain. And it was the telescope in Chile which identified the interstellar comet first.
I mentioned this detail because it nicely leads us to other astronomy related news.
In June 2025, we got the first images from the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory. This telescope, which was built in Chile, is named after an American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates.
What's so special about this Large Synoptic Survey Telescope?
It is able to photograph the whole southern sky within a period of a few nights and has the largest digital camera on Earth at 3.2 gigapixels. Give yourself a present of a few minutes and watch the videos of Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae or you can download it as an image and marvel at the beauty of the universe.
Because it can take a picture of the sky every few nights, we will be able to detect any changes much easier. From supernovae to asteroids and comets. The plan is that for the next 10 years it will continuously scan the sky every night. Also, it will generate alerts for any transient event within two minutes of the event happening. Just imagine the technology which can handle that much data that fast. Truly mesmerizing.
The recurrent pattern? Time to time, it is good for you to forget about earthly events and look at the stars. You always find something new and inspiring. It will allow your mind to wonder at the vastness of the universe, contemplating the stars billions of light years away.