New results from Japan’s Seimei 3.8 m telescope show 3I/ATLAS is very red in visible light. Its colors match or are even redder than D-type asteroids. Essentially the dark, organic rich rocks found in our outer solar system. Observations on July 15 found no short-term brightness changes.
This confirms with other observations it is probably a slow rotator or just a stable coma. Also identified no clear gas emission during the window. Combined with earlier results showing little water ice signature and low gas activity, it’s starting to look less like a typical active comet and more like a reddish, inert interstellar rock. D-type asteroid from another star system that’s only weakly active.
Simultaneous Visible Spectrophotometry Of Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS With Seimei/TriCCS
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I heard the aliens paint their interstellar probes red so they’ll ho faster .
But what if the aliens made their spacecraft look exactly like D-type asteroids? /s