>>23644981
A CME IS HEADING FOR INTERSTELLAR COMET ATLAS
How often does a CME from our sun strike a comet from interstellar space? Almost never–so tomorrow’s collision is worth watching. According to a NASA forecast model, a CME launched on Sept. 19th will reach Comet 3I/ATLAS on Sept. 24th or 25th. CMEs hitting Solar System comets have been known to kink or even disconnect their tails. What happens to an interstellar comet is anyone’s guess.
The timing is fortuitous. The potential impact comes only a week before the comet disappears into the sun’s glare, giving astronomers a narrow window to record the event. It also coincides with the comet’s recent brightening–a 40-fold increase since the beginning of September.
Gerald Rhemann and Michael Jäger took this picture of the comet on Sept. 17th. "We can confirm Thomas Lehmann’s recent detection of the comet’s increase in brightness," says Jäger. Since September began, it has jumped in magnitude from +16 to +12.
Most of the brightness increase is in one color: green. This suggests a surge of gas production as the comet nears the sun. The key compound is diatomic carbon (C2), which glows emerald when energized by solar UV radiation.
This plot from Marshall Eubanks of Space Initiatives, Inc. shows what is probably happening
His model breaks the comet's brightness into two pieces–a contribution from dust (red line) and a contribution from gas (blue dashed line). The surging gas component is making the comet bright just in time for its early-October encounter with Mars and a fleet of spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet. We will cover that later this week. Stay tuned!
Thanks! To Marshall Eubanks for noticing and pointing out the CME-comet encounter.
https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=23&month=09&year=2025