Manhattan-sized interstellar object 3I/ATLAS emitting alloy never seen in nature: Harvard scientist

The Manhattan-sized interstellar object 3I/ATLAS zipping through the solar system is producing a metal alloy never before witnessed in nature, an expert told The Post.

New images of the mysterious object taken by the Keck II telescope in Hawaii in August and released Wednesday, confirmed the interstellar flier is emitting a plume which contains four grams of nickel per second with no evidence of iron– unheard of in comets.

The end result is an alloy called nickel tetracarbonyl, which has only ever been previously witnessed in human manufacturing, Harvard astrophysicist Dr. Avi Loeb told The Post.

“There is only one place where that is known to exist and that is in industrially produced nickel alloys,” Loeb said. “This was never observed for any other object.”

In every known comet, including the two previous interstellar comets, nickel and iron appear in comparable amounts, according to experts.

The type of refined compound seen in 3I/ATLAS is used in metal coatings in manufacturing, including in the aerospace industry, to strengthen surface materials.

The images come from a new study by researchers from the Keck Observatory which suggested that this nickel-producing phenomenon, though strange, is natural.

Loeb, who teaches theoretical physics at Harvard and is a director at the Center for Astrophysics, doesn’t agree.

“This was a process that we can imagine only because it was used in industry,” he said, adding, “Never seen in comets before.”

The bizarre object was first photographed by the Hubble Telescope on July 21. 

Another strange feature of the object coming into focus with more data is 3I/ATLAS’s lack of a cometary tail.

“We usually see beautiful tails extending from the object away from the Sun, and in this case there was no evidence for such a tail,” Loeb said.

Instead, the Hubble Space Telescope image showed a 330-pounds-per-second stream of materials trailing towards the Sun. 

“Why are we seeing a jet pointed at the Sun? A stream of material in the direction of the Sun?” Loeb pondered.

The stream is composed of mostly carbon dioxide and water with trace, though detectable, amounts of cyanide and nickel without iron, according to the American Astronomical Society.

Skywatchers around the world are currently on the edge of their seats as they await the release of images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera taken between Oct. 4 and Oct. 7.

Those were snapped as the object passed by within 12 million miles of Mars — but have yet to be made public due to the ongoing government shutdown which has seen the NASA communications department furloughed.

“Who cares about the communication departments? We want to see the data from the scientists,” the doctor said forcefully.

Images from the HiRISE camera will be the closest and best that humanity will gather during 3I/ATLAS’s brief traversing of our inner Solar System.