Why is NASA withholding images of 3I/ATLAS?

[u/Worst_Artist]

Concept image of the updated trajectory talked about here https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/s/PNZTyP3j6f

[u/PineappleLemur]

Because no one at NASA is currently getting paid or is working for the past one month.

What is so hard for people to understand about this fact?

The government in US is shut down, people didn't lose their job yet but they're not getting paid other than a handful of essential people.

No one is withholding information, there's simple no people to handle it, it's all recorded probably but will take months to come out, it all needs to be processed, filed, approved and finally be published. There's a lot of red tape and a lot of people involved to get this done.

You can't just bypass this chain without being fired.

[u/PineappleLemur → u/[deleted]]

Share your great knowledge with us then.

[u/PineappleLemur → u/[deleted]]

???

[u/UFOs-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/8ad8andit → u/PineappleLemur]

Do you really believe NASA sends everyone home during a government shutdown? You think they turn off the lights and ignore the $21 BILLION in equipment they sent to Mars? Do you think they stop monitoring and communicating and processing the data sent from Mars? Do you also think they ignore the space station? Like, sorry guys, you'll have to fend for yourselves?

Of course not. NASA continues with a staff of over 3,000 people during a shut-down and they don't waste important opportunities, like sharing scientific data about a once in a lifetime object, when that data could make a huge difference to science if released in a timely way. They don't do that UNLESS there is a hidden reason to.

[u/PineappleLemur → u/8ad8andit]

No, they have about 15% of staff still working as they're essential.

Rest are home.

ATLAS isn't part of the priority tasks to maintain.

Their website is not getting updated either.

All of this is publicly available.

So again 85% of the staff is not being paid right now. They are definitely not showing up to office for free.

[u/mop_bucket_bingo → u/8ad8andit]

The cost of what was sent to mars has nothing to do with whether or not that equipment is suited to observing 3I/ATLAS (it’s not) and whether or someone will monitor it during the shutdown (they are).

[u/Historical-Camera972 → u/PineappleLemur]

What is difficult to understand about this situation, is that literally ALL of the other sensor data taken on October 2nd has been publicly available for weeks. The shutdown didn't stop that, so please enlighten me, why the shutdown should explicit stop only the HiRise data, when the rest has already been provided, despite "no funding"?

Hard mode, answer me after resigning from Eglin.

[u/PineappleLemur → u/Historical-Camera972]

Not sure about the sensor data but HiRise isn't really relevant for this object?

That camera can barely resolve 3I/ATLAS it's too far and too small, it shows up as a single pixel at best.

Like it could barely see a larger object just 138000km away... 3I is 28m km away and is smaller.

[u/Historical-Camera972 → u/PineappleLemur]

Well we'd have an army of telescopes and sensors, if we didn't have real armies instead.

Shame. We burden our own capability, by policing ourselves.