@fred8353.bsky.social
Ah, I think I might have figured it out. It looks like all the CCDs started and stopped at roughly the same time for the surface imaging but for 3I/ATLAS they could be offset by up to 10 seconds. I wonder why that happened? Some constraint given the longer exposure time?
November 22, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Ah, I think I might have figured it out. It looks like all the CCDs started and stopped at roughly the same time for the surface imaging but for 3I/ATLAS they could be offset by up to 10 seconds. I wonder why that happened? Some constraint given the longer exposure time?
My Mars surface rendering used product: ESP_035600_1765
3I/ATLAS rendering used product: ESP_089922_9081
3I/ATLAS rendering used product: ESP_089922_9081
November 22, 2025 at 6:55 PM
My Mars surface rendering used product: ESP_035600_1765
3I/ATLAS rendering used product: ESP_089922_9081
3I/ATLAS rendering used product: ESP_089922_9081
Hey, I'm trying to process the data to recreate this image for myself but I'm running into a problem. See below. Any high-level idea of what I need to account for that makes the processing different from surface data? bsky.app/profile/fred...
Wrote code to process+stitch the raw EDR files from MRO HiRISE's imaging of 3I/ATLAS into a mosaic. It seems to mostly work using example data from Mars surface data but looks completely messed up when used on the 3I/ATLAS data. Guessing I'm not accounting for exposure time? Left: Mars Right: 3I
November 22, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Hey, I'm trying to process the data to recreate this image for myself but I'm running into a problem. See below. Any high-level idea of what I need to account for that makes the processing different from surface data? bsky.app/profile/fred...
One issue I see is that scientists lately wear their politics on their sleeve. This will have the effect of people being suspicious of what they say because they suspect it may be attached to a political agenda and not science.
November 20, 2025 at 12:05 AM
One issue I see is that scientists lately wear their politics on their sleeve. This will have the effect of people being suspicious of what they say because they suspect it may be attached to a political agenda and not science.
FWIW these photos don't reveal the nucleus so no one knows exactly what's inside that coma!
November 19, 2025 at 10:24 PM
FWIW these photos don't reveal the nucleus so no one knows exactly what's inside that coma!
Wish we could've gotten tighter constraints on the nucleus
November 19, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Wish we could've gotten tighter constraints on the nucleus
It's still cool that they got a photo of a fast moving comet from the orbit of another planet but slightly discouraging that the size couldn't be constrained
November 19, 2025 at 9:23 PM
It's still cool that they got a photo of a fast moving comet from the orbit of another planet but slightly discouraging that the size couldn't be constrained
Ah ha, it looks like more images are available here www.uahirise.org/releases/3i-...
HiRISE | HiRISE Image of Exocomet 3I/ATLAS (ESP_089922_9081)
www.uahirise.org
November 19, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Ah ha, it looks like more images are available here www.uahirise.org/releases/3i-...
I personally feel that just by nature of being interstellar these objects deserve much more scrutiny even if they look like familiar snowy rocks. I don't see why that's a bad thing.
November 17, 2025 at 6:02 PM
I personally feel that just by nature of being interstellar these objects deserve much more scrutiny even if they look like familiar snowy rocks. I don't see why that's a bad thing.
There are always going to be people who are fantastical about aliens and there will always be people reluctant to entertain every possibility. Every object that comes to us from another solar system offers an exciting, albeit likely rare, potential to find evidence for them.
November 17, 2025 at 6:00 PM
There are always going to be people who are fantastical about aliens and there will always be people reluctant to entertain every possibility. Every object that comes to us from another solar system offers an exciting, albeit likely rare, potential to find evidence for them.
That said, this should be a net-positive for astronomy/comet science. It's made a lot more people interested in the field and presumably that's a good thing for funding and advancement of knowledge.
November 17, 2025 at 5:43 PM
That said, this should be a net-positive for astronomy/comet science. It's made a lot more people interested in the field and presumably that's a good thing for funding and advancement of knowledge.
I understand there is frustration but for every random account posting about alien motherships on the brink of invasion there are many more less vocal people learning interesting things about comet science as a result of this discussion.
November 17, 2025 at 5:34 PM
I understand there is frustration but for every random account posting about alien motherships on the brink of invasion there are many more less vocal people learning interesting things about comet science as a result of this discussion.
Thank you. It can be difficult for non-experts to tease out the subtleties in these positions. Most vocal experts seem to think even discussing this is silly but more communication is helpful.
November 17, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Thank you. It can be difficult for non-experts to tease out the subtleties in these positions. Most vocal experts seem to think even discussing this is silly but more communication is helpful.
He is claiming the anti-tails show jet structure. The counterargument is there is no sun facing jet and what we see are large particles unable to be swept away by radiation pressure. Is this an accurate summary?
November 17, 2025 at 4:50 PM
He is claiming the anti-tails show jet structure. The counterargument is there is no sun facing jet and what we see are large particles unable to be swept away by radiation pressure. Is this an accurate summary?
I'm trying to learn something. Asking questions helps me do that.
November 17, 2025 at 1:17 AM
I'm trying to learn something. Asking questions helps me do that.
Sorry for being a pest but I'm really trying to understand. Both Jewitt & Luu mention seeing jets in B&N's images. I don't understand why the length of these jets can't be measured. Are they just much smaller than Loeb claims and is it much more difficult to identify where the dust/jet boundary is?
November 16, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Sorry for being a pest but I'm really trying to understand. Both Jewitt & Luu mention seeing jets in B&N's images. I don't understand why the length of these jets can't be measured. Are they just much smaller than Loeb claims and is it much more difficult to identify where the dust/jet boundary is?
Loeb's measurements are ostensibly of the plasma features in B&N's images. Is the contention that the plasma can't be discerned independently from the dust in the images?
November 16, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Loeb's measurements are ostensibly of the plasma features in B&N's images. Is the contention that the plasma can't be discerned independently from the dust in the images?
As for the correctness of his calculations (assuming he is actually measuring plasma structures) I can't yet comment on.
November 16, 2025 at 1:12 PM
As for the correctness of his calculations (assuming he is actually measuring plasma structures) I can't yet comment on.
I think the issue here is disagreement over whether or not he is actually measuring dust or plasma structures. It seems like it must be the latter. See also the attached thread. bsky.app/profile/fred...
Are Jewitt & Luu & Loeb all mistaken about the structures Buechner & Niebling's images depict?
November 16, 2025 at 1:09 PM
I think the issue here is disagreement over whether or not he is actually measuring dust or plasma structures. It seems like it must be the latter. See also the attached thread. bsky.app/profile/fred...
Are Jewitt & Luu & Loeb all mistaken about the structures Buechner & Niebling's images depict?
November 16, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Are Jewitt & Luu & Loeb all mistaken about the structures Buechner & Niebling's images depict?
From www.astronomerstelegram.org?read=17490 "[...] Plasma structures evident in recent wide field pictures taken by others are not evident in our data presumably because we used an R filter to isolate the dust, [...]" aren't they referencing Buechner & Niebling here?
ATel #17490: 3I/ATLAS Still Single
ATel On
www.astronomerstelegram.org
November 16, 2025 at 12:40 PM
From www.astronomerstelegram.org?read=17490 "[...] Plasma structures evident in recent wide field pictures taken by others are not evident in our data presumably because we used an R filter to isolate the dust, [...]" aren't they referencing Buechner & Niebling here?