The interstellar object 3iATLAS made it’s closest approach to the planet Mars on Friday 3 October 2025 when it was 30 million km (18.6 million miles) from the red planet.
It will reach it’s perihelion (the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid or comet at which it is closest to the Sun) with the Sun at 11:33 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) on Wednesday 29 October 2025.
This distance will be 126,138,352 miles. Eight days earlier than this, 3iATLAS will be in solar conjunction with the Earth. The astronomical new moon occurs on Tuesday 21 October, 2025, at approximately 12:25 UTC. This celestial event marks the moment the moon is positioned between the Earth and the Sun, resulting in it being invisible from Earth. This means that an imaginary straight line could be drawn between 3iATLAS that would bisect the Sun that would lie directly between the Moon and also the Earth – an alignment of four celestial bodies; 3iATLAS, the Sun, the Moon, the Earth – all in alignment.
First question: Do you think that this is merely a coincidence?
3iATLAS path into the Solar system is retrograde and inclined 5° to the ecliptic plane.
The ecliptic plane is the imaginary plane of Earth’s orbit around the Sun. From Earth, the Sun appears to move along this plane, tracing a path called the ecliptic against the backdrop of stars throughout the year. Because the planets and other bodies in our solar system formed from a flattened disk, their orbits are all located very close to this ecliptic plane.
The Earth’s orbit around the Sun has a mean distance of 92,955,807 miles. This forms the measurement known as an Astronomical Unit.
An Astronomical Unit (AU) is a standard unit of length in astronomy, defined as exactly 149,597,870,700 meters, which is roughly the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. It provides a convenient way to measure distances within the solar system, with Earth at 1 AU from the Sun, Mars at about 1.5 AU, and Jupiter at approximately 5.2 AU.
3iATLAS will at it’s perihelion be at 1.35697119 AU.
Were 3iATLAS to be other than a natural object and was to decrease it’s speed to enter into orbit of the Sun at the distance of 1.35697119 AU it’s orbital period would be 1.580723613 years or 577.359299648 days.
Of course, since 3iATLAS’s orbit would be retrograde to the Earth’s orbit one would have to divide by 2 to calculate the orbital passing point: 288.679649824 days.
Calculating an orbit with AU using the simplified Kepler’s Third Law: The formula: Identify the semi-major axis A. This is the average distance of the object from the Sun, measured in AU. Cube this distance. Take the square root for the result P which is the orbital period in Earth years.
NB: The Moon’s orbit is inclined at 5.14 degrees to the ecliptic. The SAME as that of 3iATLAS.
Second question: Do you think that this is merely a coincidence?
Dr Avi Loeb (https://avi-loeb.medium.com/was-the-wow-signal-emitted-from-3i-atlas-d18d4f0d1f1e) speculates on the possibility of the Wow! Signal emanating from 3iATLAS.
Third question: Do you think that this is merely a coincidence?