NASA on ALERT as mysterious Comet 3I/ATLAS heads toward Earth, asteroid’s closest approach likely on…, United Nations to…

Telescopes across the globe will track it so that astronomers can determine its exact location and make predictions about similar objects in the future.

New Delhi: In a concerning development, a potential threat is rapidly approaching from space to earth. According to the experts, this threat is a comet named 3I/ATLAS, which will make its closest approach to Earth on December 19. Not only renowned space agencies around the world but also the United Nations are monitoring it closely. The comet will pass at a distance of approximately 167 million miles (270 million kilometers) from our planet.

Telescopes across the globe will track it so that astronomers can determine its exact location and make predictions about similar objects in the future. As per a report by Live Science, the UN’s International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) has completed nearly half of its 3I/ATLAS observing campaign and expects to publish its findings in a peer-reviewed journal next year.

While talking to the Live Science, James Bauer, Principal Investigator of the Small Bodies Node at IAWN and a research professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Maryland, said that the network includes more than 80 observatories and citizen scientists worldwide. These participants are actively conducting research on near-Earth objects such as comets and asteroids.

Bauer said that NASA coordinates the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) and its observing campaigns, and that 3I/ATLAS is the first interstellar object to be tracked since the campaign began in 2017.

Speaking about IAWN’s work, Bauer said, “The real purpose behind these campaigns is to strengthen the technical capability to measure the positions of asteroids and comets in the sky, which we call astrometry.” Investigators will test a new astrometry technique to track the trajectory of 3I/ATLAS, which could help determine how spacecraft might be sent to similar comets in the future.