Context:
Scientists studying the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS have estimated that it formed nearly 12 billion years ago in a cold planetary system outside the Solar System. Its hydrogen and carbon isotope ratios were analysed using the James Webb Space Telescope.
Explanation:
- Isotopes are atoms of the same element having the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons.
- Examples: Hydrogen isotopes include protium or ordinary hydrogen (0 neutrons, stable), deuterium (1 neutron, stable), and tritium (2 neutrons, radioactive); Carbon includes carbon-12 (6 neutrons, stable), carbon-13 (7 neutrons, stable), and carbon-14 (8 neutrons, radioactive & used for dating); while Uranium includes uranium-234 (142 neutrons), uranium-235 (143 neutrons, fissile), and uranium-238 (146 neutrons, most abundant).
- Isotopes possess similar chemical properties but differ in atomic mass and sometimes in nuclear stability.
- Stable isotopes do not undergo radioactive decay, while radioactive isotopes decay at predictable rates.
- The relative abundance of isotopes is called the isotopic ratio or isotopic signature.
- Isotopic ratios act as natural records because they vary with temperature, radiation and the chemical environment during formation.
- Hydrogen isotopes, especially the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio, can indicate the temperature at which water-bearing material formed.
- Carbon-isotope ratios provide clues about the gas clouds and stellar environments from which an object originated.
- Radiometric dating uses radioactive decay and half-life to determine the age of rocks and fossils.
- 3I/ATLAS is an interstellar object, meaning it originated beyond the Solar System and follows an unbound trajectory.
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