You are downplaying how much of an outlier 3I/ATLAS is, in terms of its coma CO2 abundance. Having the highest CO2/H2O ratio of any known comet around 3au makes it extremely unusual. Not like other comets.

@jimmfelton.bsky.social Funnily enough, I am indeed an observational radio astronomer who specializes in spectral line studies of comets/Solar System bodies, that you could chat to about the latest 3I/ATLAS observations!

"Not by much" - it had 8 times the average coma CO2/H2O ratio at ~3au! Imagine a person with 8x longer legs than average... Still a human, but a very unusual one.

This is what I was thinking. It has a number of very unusual properties that combine to make it stranger than your typical comet.

Thanks for this - indeed, we can think of comets as like mini planets - each one is different... some more so than others. The field of interstellar object studies is so fascinating because it massively expands the parameter space of what comets can be like, and each one contains a new lesson.

References are for wimps

Any CO still outgassing?

I hypothesize it's most likely from alien disco smoke machines

Deliberately omitted the colour bar from the images distributed to press, to make them scientifically less usable in case of a premature leak. I can see how that would be annoying to a fellow scientist, but check the article if you're actually interested: arxiv.org/abs/2508.18209

Also not really possible to hit a comet that hard without destroying it

All will be revealed in the next week... Big results from the space observatories are on their way. Not that empirical evidence is likely to fundamentally change the course of the outlandish Harvard narrative 😂

.. but finding a link between the water in Halley-type comets and Earth's oceans was the icing on the cake. There are still a lot of mysteries surrounding where Earth got it's surprisingly large water supply from, but impacts from icy comets during Earth's infancy, is a strong contender.

Growing vegetables is so hit and miss. Many variables at play.

Our cherry tomato plants just will not stop producing, and it's starting to get silly

Dark times are upon us.

More shame on this administration for forcing out our best and brightest