Learn more about ALMA’s mission here:
👉 https://www.almaobservatory.org
Why Methanol Matters
ALMA data indicate that methanol is being released both from the comet’s solid nucleus and from icy dust grains surrounding it. This suggests unusually complex chemistry occurring within or near the comet.
“It seems really chemically implausible that you could go on a path to very high chemical complexity without producing methanol,” Cordiner explained.
Because interstellar comets like 31/ATLAS are leftovers from other planetary systems, these chemical signatures may represent the raw ingredients that helped form life elsewhere in the galaxy—and possibly even on Earth.
Alien Technology or Cosmic Chemistry?
Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who has controversially suggested that 31/ATLAS could be artificial in origin, weighed in on the new data.
“The anomalously large ratio of methanol to hydrogen-cyanide production by 3I/ATLAS suggests a friendly nature for this interstellar visitor,” Loeb wrote on his blog.
