what is happening to 3I Atlas?

[Cyber]

It's now been 3 weeks and NASA has still not released images of 3I Atlas. Data so far collected suggest this is one of the strangest objects to have entered the Solar system.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Should know Tuesday, when they can see it again out of suns glare.

 

[Cyber]

And we also find out whether it's trajectory changes as a result of the sun.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

It just goes to show us all how little we know about interstellar objects and the forces outside our solar system that create them. Keep in mind this is the 3rd interstellar comet that science has even been aware of... so many questions.

 

[Judge]

Should know Tuesday, when they can see it again out of suns glare.

I wouldn't count on it. "No bucks, no Buck Rogers".

"NASA Operating Status: NASA is currently CLOSED due to a lapse in Government funding."

NASA Guidance - NASA

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Not all the telescopes are American,

 

[Judge]

Not all the telescopes are American,

Based on the OP, just pointing out that if anything happens such images won't come from NASA.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Main thing is is the orbit unchanged, will know by Tuesday.

 

[Judge]

I'm just hoping that eventually when such employees/scientists are rehired, that it's based on their professional ability and not their political loyalties.

 

[Jumpinbare]

I'm just hoping that eventually when such employees/scientists are rehired, that it's based on their professional ability and not their political loyalties.

That's the way it's supposed to work...

 

[Cyber]

According to Avi Loeb his friend who works in the University of Arizona has downloaded all the HiRiSe Mars images of 3I Atlas (HiRiSe actually belongs to the Univ of Arizona (not NASA)), But for some reason his friend is not responding to his emails which suggests the shutdown includes suppression of non-NASA assets and personnel working with NASA.

 

[Judge]

That's the way it's supposed to work...

So true...

According to Avi Loeb his friend who works in the University of Arizona has downloaded all the HiRiSe Mars images of 3I Atlas (HiRiSe actually belongs to the Univ of Arizona (not NASA)), But for some reason his friend is not responding to his emails which suggests the shutdown includes suppression of non-NASA assets and personnel working with NASA.

Point taken. This may involve contractual considerations of non-disclosure between the public and private sectors regarding the data itself.

An NDA signed in conjunction with the federal government isn't something to be taken likely.

 

[Cyber]

Yes, NDAs signed by Avi's friend in Univ Arizona are also signed by aerospace companies who work with NASA and the DOD. Many years ago back in the 1970s, the CIA were conducting mind control experiments (MKUltra) in conjunction with the DOD and Stanford Research Institute (SRI). Military personnel who were test subjects and staff from Stanford University involved in these unethical experiments were hit with NDAs so the true extent of these unethical experiments remain locked.

My hope is NASA aren't withholding information from the public for some nefarious reason.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Yes the CIA got one of our guys involved. Still think Atlas Is just a BIg chunk of nickel flying by. Boy we could us a piece.

 

[Cyber]

Oh and many of the whistle-blowers at the UAP congressional hearings are also subject to NDAs applied by their employers in the DOD. Common theme? government agencies use their privilege under the guise of national security to conceal covert activities from public scrutiny.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Wonder if lack of iron is some sort of weird alchemy over time, Iron transmuted into nickel.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

The latest two more days to get some better answers.

 

[SusanLR]

I just looked at my science newsfeed and there were a few photos from Space.com
that were taken from telescopes on Canary Islands.
Article said it is acting like a typical comet. Ice and dust debris in the tail which has switched to flowing away from the sun due to the solar winds.
Core is ice and rock.
Not much said about its structure or element composition.

I don't trust the NDAs either. I know/knew some of the people who were involved with operation Stargate and Blue Book.
But there is so much Clickbait on You Tube also.

 

[Hypnalis]

According to Avi Loeb his friend who works in the University of Arizona has downloaded all the HiRiSe Mars images of 3I Atlas (HiRiSe actually belongs to the Univ of Arizona (not NASA)), But for some reason his friend is not responding to his emails which suggests the shutdown includes suppression of non-NASA assets and personnel working with NASA.

It's equally likely that Avi Loeb's reputation has been damaged, and his colleagues have been told not to do anything that would associate their organization with his name.

Loeb has been interfering with the science side of this, effectively injecting unfounded and pointless questions about aliens into every single interview and comment article about these very interesting objects.

The question "could it be a spacecraft?" isn't crazy, but what Loeb is doing is trolling for "clicks, attention, and validation" with absolutely no data to support any of it.
Open speculation in the absence of data is way out of line, and Loeb has been doing that since 1I-Oumuamua.

BTW - given how much empty space there is in our local galaxy, and how little matter in comparison, you wouldn't expect randomly travelling interstellar objects to turn up very often in our solar system.
But AFAIK we only have those three data points, which is nowhere near enough to figure out if one every few years is typical, or very unusual.

And there's an "elephant in the room" too:

If they were alien sensor platforms, we have to assume:
1. If they wanted us to know they were spacecraft, they wouldn't simulate cometsl
2. If they didn't want to look like spacecraft:
2a. They'd be well-hidden (to our tech level) sensor packages (e.g. inside a real comet) or
2b. They'd simulate comets perfectly (to our tech level)

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

To those more into conjecture you will like this guy.