Free Astronomy Magazine September-October 2026 ARABIC VERSION

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER2026 T 47 hisimageshowspartofthespectrumofinterstellarcomet3I/ATLAS,captured between 6 and 26 December 2025 with the UVES instrument on ESO’s Very LargeTelescope(VLT).UsingUVES,astronomersstudiedthespectralsignaturesof cyanide, a molecule comprised of a carbon atom and a nitrogen one. More pre- cisely ,theylookedattheirisotopicra- tios:therelativeamountsofdifferent formsofthesameatoms.Theseratios are sensitive to the conditions under which 3I/ATLAS formed, and are not expectedtochangemuchasthecomet travels through space. The spectrum shownherecontainsspectralfeatures produced by 12 C, an isotope of carbon with 6 protons and 6 neutrons, and 13 C, which has 7 neutrons instead. Thesefeaturesareveryfaint,butas- tronomersknowtheexactwavelength regions where to look for them in the spectrum of the comet. Adding to- getherseveralofthesewavelengthre- gions averages out the noise, making the real features pop out. The team performedsimilarmeasurementswith two isotopes of nitrogen, 14 N and 15 N. Bycomparingthe 12 C/ 13 Cand 14 N/ 15 NratioswiththosemeasuredinSolarSystem cometsandinthediscsofmaterialaroundyoungstars,theteamconcludedthat 3I/ATLASlikelyformedintheoutskirtsofthediscaroundastarolderthanthe Sun. [ESO/C. Opitom, J. Manfroid et al. Comet image: O. Hainaut] secondwastoofaint—thiswasnot thecasefor3I/ATLAS.Thankstothe object’s unprecedented brightness, Opitom,Manfroid,Hutsemékersand theirteamwereabletomeasurethe comet’s isotopic ratios: the relative amounts of different forms of the same element. Using the UVES instrument on ESO’s VLT,theteammeasuredratiosof carbonandnitrogenisotopesincyanide moleculespresentinthegas around the comet. These ratios are known to be a good indicator of acomet’s origin, as they are very sen-sitive to the physical conditions inthe formation environment and are not expected to change much as the comet travels on through space. “Unlike comets from our Solar Sys- tem, this interstellar visitor carries unusually high carbon and nitrogen isotopicratios,” explainsAravindKr- ishnakumar,a researcherat theUni- versity of Liège and co-author onthenewstudy.Asimilarstudyledby Martin Cordiner at the NASA God- dard Space Flight Center, that was published at the end of June in Na- ture ,foundasimilarisotopicratioof carbon, as well as elevated levels of deuterium, also called heavy hydro- gen. The study used data from the JamesWebbSpaceTelescope,ajoint project of the US, European and Canadian space agencies. Overall, the findings by Opitom’s teamindicatethatthecometlikely formedintheouterregionsaround anold,‘low-metallicity’star.Alow- metallicitystarisonewithfewele- ments heavier than helium in its composition,thatisthoughttohave formed when the Universe was muchyounger—andlesschemically rich—thanitisnow.Theteamsus- pectsthat3I/ATLASthereforeorigi- natedaroundastarmucholderthan the Sun. “3I/ATLAS is a really excit- ing opportunity to probe the com- position of another planetary sys- tem, one that formed long before our Sun and Solar System even ex- isted,” says co-author Rosemary Dorsey, a researcher at the Univer- sity of Helsinki, Finland. Evidence from the studies by the different teams points to 3I/ATLAS beingmore than twice as old as the Sun.As 3I/ATLAS moves away from the Sun and gets progressively fainter,its observations at the VLT are also nearing their end. ESO’s upcoming ExtremelyLargeTelescope(ELT)will allow similar measurements for fu- ture interstellar objects, including thoselessbrightthan3I/ATLAS. “The field of interstellar objects is still very new, and we do not reallyknow what to expect. Every time a new one is discovered, we have new surprises,” Opitomconcludes.  وﻛﺎن اﻟﺜﺎﻧﻲ ﺧﺎﻓﺘ ﺎً ﻟﻠﻐﺎﻳﺔ ﻓـﺈن اﻷﻣـﺮ ﻛـﺎن ﺎً ﻣﺨﺘﻠﻔ ﻣﻊ 3I/ATLAS ﻓﺒﻔﻀـﻞ ﺳـﻄﻮﻋﻪ ﻏ ا ﺴـﺒﻮق ﺗﻤﻜﻨـﺖ أوﺑﻴﺘـﻮم وﻣﺎﻧﻔﺮوﻳـﺪ وﻫﻮﺗﺴﻴﻤﻴﻜﺮز وﻓﺮﻳﻘﻬﻢ اﻟﻌﻠﻤﻲ ﻣﻦ ﻗﻴـﺎس اﻟﻨﺴﺐ اﻟﻨﻈ ﻳﺔ ﻟﻠﻤﺬ ﻧﺐ أي اﻟﻜﻤﻴﺎت اﻟﻨﺴﺒﻴﺔ ﻟﻸﺷﻜﺎل ا ﺨﺘﻠﻔﺔ ﻟﻠﻌﻨﴫ ﻧﻔﺴﻪ وﺑﺎﺳﺘﺨﺪا م أداة UVES ا ﺜﺒﺘﺔ ﻋﲆ اﻟﺘﻠﺴﻜﻮب اﻟﻜﺒ ﺟﺪ اً اﻟﺘﺎﺑﻊ ﻟﻠﻤﺮﺻـﺪ اﻷوروﺑـﻲ اﻟﺠﻨـﻮﺑﻲ ﻗـﺎس اﻟﻔﺮﻳﻖ ﻧﺴﺐ ﻧﻈﺎﺋﺮ اﻟﻜﺮﺑﻮن واﻟﻨﻴﱰوﺟ ﰲ ﺟﺰﻳﺌﺎت اﻟﺴﻴﺎﻧﻴﺪ ا ﻮﺟﻮدة ﰲ اﻟﻐـﺎز ا ﺤـﻴﻂ ﺑﺎ ﺬﻧﺐ ﺗ. ﻌﺮف ﻫﺬه اﻟﻨﺴﺐ ﺑﺄﻧﻬﺎ ﻣﺆﴍ ﺟﻴﺪ ﻋﲆ أﺻﻞ ا ﺬﻧﺒﺎت ﻷﻧﻬﺎ ﺷـﺪﻳﺪة اﻟﺤﺴﺎﺳـﻴﺔ ﻟﻠﻈﺮوف اﻟ ﻔﻴﺰﻳﺎﺋﻴﺔ اﻟﺴﺎﺋﺪة ﰲ ﺑﻴﺌﺔ ﺗﺸـﻜﻠﻬﺎ وﻻ ﻳﺘﻮﻗﻊ أن ﺗﺘﻐ ﻛﺜ اً أﺛﻨﺎء رﺣﻠـﺔ ا ـﺬﻧﺐ ﻋﱪ اﻟﻔﻀﺎء ـﻳ. ﴩح أراﻓﻴﻨﺪ ﻛﺮﻳﺸـﻨﺎﻛﻮﻣﺎر اﻟﺒﺎﺣﺚ ﰲ ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ ﻟﻴﻴﺞ وأ ﺣـﺪ ا ﺸـﺎرﻛ ﰲ اﻟﺪراﺳﺔ اﻟﺠﺪﻳﺪة »: ﻗﺎﺋﻼً ﻋﲆ ﺧﻼ ف ﻣـﺬﻧﺒﺎت ﻧﻈﺎﻣﻨﺎ اﻟﺸـ ـ ﻤﴘ ﻳﺤﻤـﻞ ﻫـﺬا اﻟﺰاﺋـﺮ ﺑـ اﻟﻨﺠﻤﻲ ﻧﺴﺒ ﺎً ﻣﺮﺗﻔﻌﺔ ﻋﲆ ﻧﺤﻮ ﻏـ ﻣﻌﺘـ ﺎد ﻟﻨﻈﺎﺋﺮ اﻟﻜﺮﺑﻮن واﻟﻨﻴﱰوﺟ « . ﻛﻤﺎ ﺗﻮﺻـﻠﺖ دراﺳﺔ ﻣﺸﺎﺑﻬﺔ ﻗﺎدﻫـﺎ ﻣـﺎرﺗﻦ ﻛـﻮردﻳﻨﺮ ﰲ ﻣﺠﻠﺔ FreeAstronomy ﺎﻟﻌﺮ ﺔ 47 دراﺳﺔ ﻣﺸﺎﺑﻬﺔ ﻗﺎدﻫـﺎ ﻣـﺎرﺗﻦ ﻛـﻮردﻳﻨﺮ ﰲ ﻣﺮﻛﺰ ﻏﻮدارد ﻟﺮﺣﻼت اﻟﻔﻀﺎء اﻟﺘﺎﺑﻊ ﻟﻮﻛﺎﻟـﺔ ﻧﺎﺳﺎ، وﻧُﴩت ﰲ ﻧﻬﺎﻳﺔ ﺷﻬﺮ ﻳﻮﻧﻴﻮ ﰲ ﻣﺠﻠـﺔ ﻧﻴﺘﴩ إﱃ ﻧﺴـﺒﺔ ﻣ ﻤﺎﺛﻠـﺔ ﻟﻨﻈـﺎﺋﺮ اﻟﻜﺮﺑـﻮن إﺿﺎﻓﺔ إﱃ ﻣﺴﺘﻮﻳﺎت ﻣﺮﺗ ﻔﻌﺔ ﻣﻦ اﻟﺪﻳﻮﺗ ﻳﻮم ا ﻌﺮوف أﻳﻀـ ﺎً ﺑﺎﺳـﻢ اﻟﻬﻴـﺪروﺟ اﻟﺜﻘﻴـﻞ واﻋﺘﻤﺪت اﻟﺪراﺳـﺔ ﻋـﲆ ﺑﻴﺎﻧـﺎت ﺗﻠﺴـﻜﻮب ﺟـﻴﻤﺲ وﻳـﺐ اﻟﻔﻀـﺎﺋﻲ وﻫـﻮ ﻣ ـ ـ ﴩوع ﻣﺸـﱰك ﺑـ وﻛـﺎﻻت اﻟﻔﻀـﺎء اﻷﻣﺮﻳﻜﻴ ـﺔ واﻷوروﺑﻴﺔ واﻟﻜﻨﺪﻳﺔ . ﺑﺸﻜﻞ ﻋﺎم ﺗﺸ ﻧ ﺘﺎﺋﺞ ﻓﺮﻳﻖ أوﺑﻴﺘـﻮم إﱃ أن ا ــﺬﻧﺐ ﺗﺸــﻜﻞ ﻋــﲆ اﻷرﺟــﺢ ﰲ ا ﻨــﺎﻃﻖ اﻟﺨﺎرﺟﻴﺔ ا ﺤﻴﻄـﺔ ﺑـﻨﺠﻢ ﻗـﺪﻳﻢ ﻣـﻨﺨﻔﺾ اﻟﻔﻠﺰﻳﺔ وﻳ ﻘﺼﺪ ﺑﺎﻟﻨﺠﻢ ﻣﻨﺨﻔﺾ اﻟﻔﻠﺰﻳﺔ ذﻟﻚ اﻟﺬي ﻳﺤﺘﻮي ﻋﲆ ﻛﻤﻴﺔ ﻗﻠﻴﻠ ﺔ ﻣـﻦ اﻟﻌﻨـﺎﴏ اﻷﺛﻘﻞ ﻣﻦ اﻟﻬﻴﻠﻴﻮم وﻳ ﻌﺘﻘﺪ أﻧﻪ ﺗﻜﻮﱠ ن ﻋﻨـﺪﻣﺎ ﻛﺎن اﻟﻜﻮن أﺻﻐﺮ ﻋﻤﺮ اً وأﻗﻞ ﺛﺮاءً ﺑﺎﻟﻌﻨـﺎﴏ ﻴ اﻟﻜ ﻤﻴﺎﺋﻴﺔ ﻣﻤﺎ ﻫﻮ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ اﻟﻴﻮم ﻟـﺬﻟﻚ ﻳﻌﺘﻘـﺪ اﻟﻔﺮﻳﻖ أن 3I/ATLAS ﻧﺸ ﺄ ﺣﻮل ﻧﺠﻢ أﻗـﺪم ﺑﻜﺜ ﻣﻦ اﻟﺸﻤﺲ . ﺗﻘﻮل روزﻣـﺎري دورﳼ اﻟﺒﺎﺣﺜﺔ ﰲ ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ ﻫﻠﺴـﻨﻜﻲ ﺑﻔﻨﻠﻨـﺪا وأﺣـﺪ اﻟﺒﺎﺣﺜﺔ ﰲ ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ ﻫﻠﺴـﻨﻜﻲ ﺑﻔﻨﻠﻨـﺪا وأﺣـﺪ ا ﺸﺎرﻛ ﰲ اﻟﺪراﺳـﺔ :» ﻳﻤﺜـﻞ 3I/ATLAS ﻓﺮﺻﺔ ﻣﺜ ة ﻟﻠﻐﺎﻳ ﺔ ﻻﺳﺘﻜﺸﺎف ﺗﺮﻛﻴﺐ ﻧﻈﺎم ﻛﻮﻛﺒﻲ آﺧﺮ ﺗﺸﻜﻞ ﻗﺒﻞ وﻗﺖ ﻃﻮﻳﻞ ﻣﻦ وﺟﻮد اﻟﺸﻤﺲ وﻧﻈﺎﻣﻨﺎ اﻟﺸ « ﻤﴘـ وﺗﺸـ اﻷدﻟـﺔ ا ﺴﺘﺨﻠﺼ ﺔ ﻣﻦ اﻟﺪراﺳﺎت اﻟﺘﻲ أﺟﺮﺗﻬﺎ اﻟﻔﺮق ا ﺨﺘﻠﻔﺔ إﱃ أن ﻋﻤﺮ 3I/ATLAS ﻳﺰﻳـﺪ ﻋـﲆ ﺿــﻌﻔﻲ ﻋﻤــﺮ اﻟﺸــﻤﺲ وﻣــﻊ اﺑﺘﻌــﺎد 3I/ATLAS ﻋﻦ اﻟﺸـﻤﺲ وﺗﻨـﺎﻗﺺ ﻌﺎﻧـﻪ ﺗﺪرﻳﺠﻴﺎً ﺗﻘﱰب أﻳﻀ ﺎً ﻋﻤﻠﻴﺎت رﺻ ﺪه ﺑﻮاﺳﻄﺔ اﻟﺘﻠﺴﻜﻮب اﻟﻜﺒـ ﺟـﺪ اً ﻣـﻦ ﻧﻬﺎﻳﺘﻬـﺎ إﻻ أن اﻟ ﺘﻠﺴـﻜﻮب اﻟﻔــﺎﺋﻖ اﻟـﺬي ﻳﺴـﺘﻌﺪ ا ﺮﺻـﺪ اﻷوروﺑ ـﻲ اﻟﺠﻨ ـﻮﺑ ﻲ ﻟﺘﺸ ـﻐﻴﻠﻪ ﺳ ـﻴﻤﻜﻦ ﰲ ا ﺴﺘﻘﺒﻞ ﻣﻦ إﺟﺮاء ﻗﻴﺎﺳﺎت ﻣﻤﺎ ﺛﻠﺔ ﻟﻸﺟﺮام ﺑ اﻟﻨﺠﻤﻴﺔ اﻟﻘﺎدﻣﺔ ﺑﻤﺎ ﰲ ذﻟﻚ اﻷﺟﺮام اﻷﻗﻞ ﺎً ﺳﻄﻮﻋ ﻣﻦ 3I/ATLAS . ﺗﺨﺘﺘﻢ أوﺑﻴﺘﻮم ﺑﻘﻮﻟﻬﺎ :» ﻻ ﻳﺰال ﻣﺠﺎل دراﺳﺔ اﻷﺟﺮام ﺑ اﻟ ﻨﺠﻤﻴﺔ ﺣﺪﻳﺜًﺎ ﺟﺪاً وﻻ ﻧﻌﺮف ﻣﺎ اﻟﺬي ﻳﻨﺒﻐﻲ أن ﻧﺘﻮﻗﻌﻪ ﻓﻔﻲ ﻛﻞ ﻣﺮة ﻳُﻜﺘﺸﻒ ﻓﻴﻬﺎ ﺟﺮم ﺟﺪﻳﺪ، ﻧﻔﺎﺟﺄ ﺑﺄﻣﻮر ﺟﺪﻳﺪة « . ا ﺜﺒﺘﺔ ﻋﲆ اﻟﺘﻠﺴـﻜﻮب اﻟﻜﺒـ ﺟـﺪًا ) VLT ( ﺗﻈﻬﺮ ﻫﺬﻩ اﻟﺼﻮرة ﺟﺰء اً ﻣﻦ اﻟﻄ ﻒ اﻟﻀﻮﺋﻲ ﻟﻠﻤﺬﻧﺐ اﻟﻨ ﻤـﻲ ﺑ 3I/ATLAS اﻟـﺘ اﻟـﺬ ﻘﻂﺧـﻼل اﻟﻔـ ة ﺑـــــ 6 و 26 د ﺴـــــﻤ 2025 ﺎﺳـــــﺘﺨﺪام أداة UVES اﻟﻤﺜ ﺘــــــﺔ ﻋﻠـــــﻰ اﻟﺘﻠﺴـــــ ﻮب اﻟﻜﺒــــــ ﺟـــــﺪ اً اﻟﺘـــــﺎﺑﻊ ﻟﻠﻤﺮﺻــــــﺪ اﻷوروﺑــﻲ اﻟــ ـ ﺠﻨﻮﺑﻲ و ﺎﺳـــﺘﺨﺪام أداة UVES اﻟ درس ـــﺔ ﻟﺴــ ﺎﻧ ﺪ ﻌﻠﻤــﺎء اﻟ ﺼــﻤﺎت اﻟﻄ ﻔ )CN( وﻫــﻮ ﺟـــﺰيء ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــ ﺘ ﻮن ﻣﻦ ذرة ﻛﺮﻮن واﺣﺪة وذرة ﻧ واﺣـﺪة وﺟـ . ــــﺪاً و ﺸــــ ﻞ أﻛــــ ﺗﺤﺪ ـــــﺔ رﻛـــــﺰوا ﻋﻠــــﻰ اﻟﻨﺴــــﺐ اﻟﻨﻈ ﻟﻬــــــــــﺬا اﻟـــــــــــ ـ ﺠﺰيء ــــــــــﺎت اﻟﻨﺴـــــــــــﺒ ﺔ ﻟﻸﺷـــــــــــ ﺎل أي اﻟ ﻤ اﻟﻤﺨ ﺘﻠﻔــــــﺔ ﻟﻠــــــﺬرات ﻧﻔﺴــــــﻬﺎ ) اﻟﻨﻈــــــﺎﺋﺮ وﺗ ( ﻌــــــﺪ ﻫــــــﺬﻩ ﺗﺸــ ﻞ ﻓﻴﻬــﺎ اﻟﻤــﺬﻧﺐ اﻟﻨﺴـﺐﺣﺴﺎﺳــﺔ ﻟﻠﻈـﺮوف اﻟــ 3I/ATLAS وﻻ ﺘﻮﻗﻊ أن ﺗﺘﻐ ﻛﺜً ا أﺛﻨﺎء رﺣﻠﺘﮫ ﻋ اﻟﻔﻀـــــــﺎء ـــــــﻒ اﻟﻤﻌـــــــﺮوضﻫﻨـــــــﺎ ﻋﻠــــــــﻰ وﻳﺤﺘـــــــﻮي اﻟﻄ ـــــﺔ ﻧﺎﺗﺠـــــﺔ ﻋـــــﻦ اﻟﻨﻈـــــ ﺳـــــﻤﺎت ﻃ ﻔ ¹²C وﻫـــــﻮ ﻧﻈــــــ ﻟﻠﻜﺮـــــﻮن ﻳﺤﺘــــــﻮيﻋﻠـــــﻰ 6 ﺑﺮوﺗﻮﻧــــــﺎت و 6 ﻧﻴﻮﺗﺮوﻧــــــﺎت واﻟﻨﻈ ¹³C ﻳﺤﺘﻮيﻋﻠﻰ اﻟﺬ 7 ﻧﻴﻮﺗﺮوﻧﺎت ﺪﻻً ﻣـﻦ 6 وﺗ ــﺔ ﺿـﻌ ﻔﺔ ﺟــﺪ ـﻮن ﻫــﺬﻩ اﻟﺴـﻤﺎت اﻟﻄ ﻔ اً إﻻ أن ﻋﻠﻤــــــــﺎء اﻟﻔﻠــــــــﻚ ﻌﺮﻓــــــــﻮن ﺪﻗــــــــﺔ ﻣﻨــــــــﺎﻃﻖ اﻷﻃــــــــﻮال ا ﻳﺠﺐ اﻟﺒﺤﺚ ﻓﻴﻬﺎ داﺧﻞ ﻃ ﻒ اﻟﻤـﺬﻧﺐ ﻟﻤﻮﺟ ﺔ اﻟ . وﻣــــﻦ ﺧــــﻼل ﻤــــﻊ ﻋــــﺪة ﻣﻨــــﺎﻃﻖ ﻣــــﻦ ﻫــــﺬﻩ اﻷﻃــــﻮال اﻟﻤﻮﺟ ﺔ ﻣﻌ ﺎً ﺘﻢ ﺗﻘﻠﻴﻞ اﻟﻀﻮﺿﺎء ﻓﻲ اﻟﺒ ﺎﻧـﺎت ﻣﻤـﺎ ـــــﺔ اﻟـــــ ﻳﺠﻌـــــﻞ اﻟﺴـــــﻤﺎت اﻟﻄ ﻔ ـ ﺤﻘ ﻘ ﺔ أﻛـــــ وﺿـــــﻮﺣ ﺎً وأﺟﺮى اﻟﻔﺮﻖ ﻗ ﺎﺳﺎت ﻣﻤﺎﺛﻠﺔ ﻟﻨﻈ ي اﻟﻨ وﺟـ ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ ــــــ ـــــــــــــــــــــــ ¹⁴N ¹⁴N و ¹⁵N وﻣﻦ ﺧﻼل ﻣﻘﺎرﺔ ﻧﺴﺐ ¹² ¹³C/C و ¹⁴ ¹⁵N/N ﻣﻊ اﻟﻨﺴﺐ اﻟﻤﻘﺎﺳﺔ ﻓﻲ ﻣﺬﻧ ﺎت اﻟﻨﻈﺎم اﻟﺸﻤﺴﻲ وﻛﺬﻟﻚ ﻓﻲ اﻷﻗﺮاص اﻟﻤﺎد ﺔ اﻟﻤﺤ ﻄﺔ ﺎﻟﻨﺠﻮم اﻟﻔﺘ ﺔ ﺧﻠـﺺ اﻟﻔﺮ ـﻖ إﻟـﻰ أن اﻟﻤـﺬﻧﺐ 3I/ATLAS ﻗـﺪ ﺗﺸـ ﻞ ﻋﻠﻰ اﻷرﺟﺢ ﻓﻲ اﻷﻃﺮاف اﻟ ـ ﺨﺎرﺟ ﺔ ﻟﻠﻘﺮص اﻟﻤﺤ ﻂ ﻨ ﻢ أﻗﺪم ﻣﻦ اﻟﺸﻤ .ﺲ [ESO/C. 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