3I/ATLAS has an extreme taste for heavy water
More and more details about 3I/ATLAS are filtering through the scientific process as time goes on. Our third known interstellar visitor attracted the attention of some of the world's most powerful observatories when it was discovered in July 2025, and some of those telescopes found something peculiar—the isotopes it contained appeared different. A new paper submitted to The Astrophysical Journal…
The interstellar visitor known as 3I/ATLAS has captured the attention of astronomers due to its unusual isotopic composition. Researchers from the RIKEN Pioneering Research Institute in Japan, led by Kenji Furuya, have found that the isotopic discrepancies in 3I/ATLAS are likely due to the low metallicity of the stellar nursery in which it was born.
This means that the universe has become more metal-rich over time as more stars explode in supernovae and create more complex elements. The carbon-to-carbon-13 ratio in 3I/ATLAS is much higher than in objects within our own solar system, and the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio in its water is also significantly higher, indicating that it contains a large amount of heavy water compared to other objects in the solar system.
Scientists have hypothesized that these differences are caused by the low metallicity of the region where 3I/ATLAS formed. In such environments, there are fewer carbon monoxide molecules, fewer hydrogen deluges, and lower cosmic ray ionization rates, all of which contribute to higher deuterium levels in water. These findings provide insight into the formation and origins of this fascinating interstellar object.
Written by urgent.news from Phys.org's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
Also reported by 1 other outlet
- 3I/ATLAS Has An Extreme Taste For Heavy Water universetoday.com
