3I/ATLAS has repeatedly caught researchers off guard. For instance, observations found that it features a much higher ratio of carbon dioxide to water than expected. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has also pondered its strange trajectory, which takes it suspiciously close to Jupiter, Mars, and Venus.
Next week, it’s expected to come within just 1.67 million miles of Mars, in what Loeb called a “remarkable fine-tuning of its path.” (Loeb has raised the possibility that the object is some form of extraterrestrial technology, though NASA has pushed back on that idea.)
And it recently met some considerable resistance as well during its unusual visit. Earlier this week, the Sun unleashed a ferocious flurry of plasma and magnetic fields, called a coronal mass ejection, straight at 3I/ATLAS.
太阳开始反击了。