Even more surprising was the detection of nickel vapor by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, without accompanying iron. One hypothesis involves volatile compounds such as nickel tetracarbonyl, which can break down under ultraviolet light. As Stefanie Milam of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center explained, the comet appears to have “a cooked outer shell that preserves a chemical record of multiple galactic environments.”
31/ATLAS Implications for Planetary Science
Unlike 1I/‘Oumuamua, which showed no visible coma, 31/ATLAS displays strong cometary activity similar to 2I/Borisov—but with far more exotic chemistry. These differences are critical for refining theories about how icy bodies are ejected from planetary systems and how they evolve during long journeys through interstellar space.
Future surveys, particularly the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory, are expected to detect many more interstellar objects. Each discovery will add context, but the 2026 encounter between 31/ATLAS and Jupiter may remain one of the most informative case studies for several decades.
