Linking System of Jets to the Non-Gravitational Acceleration of 3I/ATLAS
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866918457802489856 |
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| author | Scarmato, Toni Loeb, Abraham |
| author_facet | Scarmato, Toni Loeb, Abraham |
| contents | Building on the jet morphology and periodic wobble analysis of 3I/ATLAS in Scarmato & Loeb (2026), we link observed jet position angles (PAs) and the non-gravitational acceleration components (A1,A2,A3) in the 3D RTN (radial, transverse, normal) frame relative to the Sun. We: (i) compute RTN directions from heliocentric state vectors and project them on the sky at the measured astromet ric pointings; (ii) compare projected RTN PAs to three persistent jets (Jet1-Jet2-Jet3) and quantify angular offsets; and (iii) estimate order-of-magnitude thrust and accelerations from HST/WFC3-UVIS F350LP net counts via transformations from photometry to cross-section, dust mass, mass-loss rate, and thrust. We explicitly document the uncertainties through background handling, phase-function systematics, and geometric degeneracies along the line of sight. For U.T. 2025-11-30.80903, Jet2 is aligned with the projected transverse direction to within 0.5 degs, while Jet3 is the closest to the pro jected normal direction with a moderate offset (about 25 degs). For UT 2025-12-27, Jet2 exhibits a monotonic PA drift over 24 minutes with a larger oscillation amplitude. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_18773 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Linking System of Jets to the Non-Gravitational Acceleration of 3I/ATLAS Scarmato, Toni Loeb, Abraham Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Astrophysics of Galaxies Solar and Stellar Astrophysics F.1.1 Building on the jet morphology and periodic wobble analysis of 3I/ATLAS in Scarmato & Loeb (2026), we link observed jet position angles (PAs) and the non-gravitational acceleration components (A1,A2,A3) in the 3D RTN (radial, transverse, normal) frame relative to the Sun. We: (i) compute RTN directions from heliocentric state vectors and project them on the sky at the measured astromet ric pointings; (ii) compare projected RTN PAs to three persistent jets (Jet1-Jet2-Jet3) and quantify angular offsets; and (iii) estimate order-of-magnitude thrust and accelerations from HST/WFC3-UVIS F350LP net counts via transformations from photometry to cross-section, dust mass, mass-loss rate, and thrust. We explicitly document the uncertainties through background handling, phase-function systematics, and geometric degeneracies along the line of sight. For U.T. 2025-11-30.80903, Jet2 is aligned with the projected transverse direction to within 0.5 degs, while Jet3 is the closest to the pro jected normal direction with a moderate offset (about 25 degs). For UT 2025-12-27, Jet2 exhibits a monotonic PA drift over 24 minutes with a larger oscillation amplitude. |
| title | Linking System of Jets to the Non-Gravitational Acceleration of 3I/ATLAS |
| topic | Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Astrophysics of Galaxies Solar and Stellar Astrophysics F.1.1 |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.18773 |