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*

Rohan Rahatgaonkar, Juan Pablo Carvajal, Thomas H. Puzia +25

We report VLT spectroscopy of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS (C/2025~N1) from $r_{\mathrm{h}}\simeq 4.4$ to $2.85$~au using X-shooter (300--550\,nm, $R\simeq 3000$) and UVES (opt…