From a Different Star: 3I/ATLAS in the context of the Ōtautahi-Oxford interstellar object population model

Abstract

The discovery of the third interstellar object (ISO), 3I/ATLAS (`3I'), provides a rare chance to directly observe a small body from another Solar System. Studying its chemistry and dynamics will add to our understanding of how the processes of planetesimal formation and evolution happen across the Milky Way's disk, and how such objects respond to the Milky Way's potential. In this Letter, we present a first assessment of 3I in the context of the Ōtautahi-Oxford model, which uses data from Gaia in conjunction with models of protoplanetary disk chemistry and Galactic dynamics to predict the properties of the ISO population. The model shows that both the velocity and radiant of 3I are within the expected range. Its velocity predicts an age of over 7.6 Gyr and a high water mass fraction, which may become observable shortly. We also conclude that it is very unlikely that 3I shares an origin with either of the previous two interstellar object detections.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in ApJL

References in corpus (42)

• Gaia Data Release 3: Summary of the content and survey properties
• Local Kinematics and the Local Standard of Rest
• The Geneva-Copenhagen survey of the Solar neighbourhood: Ages, metallicities, and kinematic properties of 14,000 F and G dwarfs
• ATLAS: A High-Cadence All-Sky Survey System
• The Milky Way has no thick disk
• Structure in phase space associated with spiral and bar density waves in an N-body galactic disk
• Origin and evolution of moving groups I. Characterization in the observational kinematic-age-metallicity space
• Interstellar Interlopers: Number Density and Origins of 'Oumuamua-like Objects
• The Natural History of 'Oumuamua
• The carbon monoxide-rich interstellar comet 2I/Borisov
• The Demographics of Long-Period Comets
• Transient spiral structure and the disc velocity substructure in Gaia DR2
• Riding the kinematic waves in the Milky Way disk with Gaia
• Signatures of resonance and phase mixing in the Galactic disc
• The tumbling rotational state of 1I/`Oumuamua
• The Feasibility and Benefits of In Situ Exploration of `Oumuamua-like objects
• Modeling the light curve of `Oumuamua: evidence for torque and disc-like shape
• Evidence that 1I/2017 U1 (`Oumuamua) was composed of molecular hydrogen ice
• The Nucleus of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov
• Short-term dynamical evolution of grand-design spirals in barred galaxies
• The Dynamics of Interstellar Asteroids and Comets within the Galaxy: an Assessment of Local Candidate Source Regions for 1I/`Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov
• `Oumuamua as a messenger from the Local Association
• Constraints on Radial Migration in Spiral Galaxies I. Analytic Criterion for Capture at Corotation
• Gravitational scattering of stars and clusters and the heating of the Galactic disk
• The GALAH survey: properties of the Galactic disk(s) in the solar neighbourhood
• On the stellar velocity distribution in the solar neighborhood in the light of Gaia DR2
• 1I/'Oumuamua as an N2 ice fragment of an exo-Pluto surface: I. size and compositional constraints
• Oort cloud Ecology II: Extra-solar Oort clouds and the origin of asteroidal interlopers
• Prospects for Backtracing 1I/`Oumuamua and Future Interstellar Objects
• Acceleration of 1I/`Oumuamua from radiolytically produced H${}_2$ in H${}_2$O ice
• Plausible home stars of the interstellar object 'Oumuamua found in Gaia DR2
• On the dynamical history of the interstellar object 'Oumuamua?
• A hypothesis for the rapid formation of planets
• A search for the origin of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov
• Evidence Suggesting that 'Oumuamua is the ~30 Myr-old product of a Molecular Cloud
• A kinematical age for the interstellar object 1I/'Oumuamua
• Moving groups across Galactocentric radius with Gaia DR3
• An Upper Bound to the Space Density of Interstellar Comets
• Predicting Interstellar Object Chemodynamics with Gaia
• Predicting the water content of interstellar objects from galactic star formation histories
• A general method for assessing the origin of interstellar small bodies: the case of 1I/2017 U1 ('Oumuamua)
• Turning up the heat on `Oumuamua

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Very Large Telescope Observations of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS. II. From Quiescence to Glow: Dramatic Rise of Ni i Emission and Incipient CN Outgassing at Large Heliocentric Distances*
• Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS: Evidence for Galactic Cosmic Ray Processing
• The Volatile Inventory of 3I/ATLAS as seen with JWST/MIRI
• Near-Discovery SOAR Photometry of the Third Interstellar Object: 3I/ATLAS
• Dynamical simulation of the Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
• Pre-perihelion Volatile Evolution of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Indicating Significant Contribution from Extended Source in the Coma
• Icy Volatile Enhancements in Evolving Protoplanetary Disks