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Michigan Team Finds Interstellar Comet’s Water 30× Deuterium-Rich

5/12/2026

Summary

Story summary

University of Michigan researchers found comet 3I/ATLAS has deuterium-rich water 30× solar-system comets and 40× Earth’s oceans.
Authors Luis Salazar Manzano and Teresa Paneque-Carreño published the results in Nature Astronomy with NASA, NSF and Chilean funding.
Data from Arizona’s MDM Observatory and Chile’s ALMA measured the comet’s deuterated-water, indicating formation in a colder, low-radiation region.
This water-composition analysis of an interstellar object shows future chemical studies of such visitors are feasible.

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Story summary

University of Michigan researchers found comet 3I/ATLAS has deuterium-rich water 30× solar-system comets and 40× Earth’s oceans.
Authors Luis Salazar Manzano and Teresa Paneque-Carreño published the results in Nature Astronomy with NASA, NSF and Chilean funding.
Data from Arizona’s MDM Observatory and Chile’s ALMA measured the comet’s deuterated-water, indicating formation in a colder, low-radiation region.
This water-composition analysis of an interstellar object shows future chemical studies of such visitors are feasible.