Interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas Discovered, Offering New Insights into Extraterrestrial objects
Chile – Astronomers have confirmed the discovery of a third interstellar object passing through our solar system: comet 3I/Atlas. Detected on July 1st by the Atlas W68 telescope in the Chilean desert, the object’s hyperbolic trajectory-a path crossing the solar system from one side to the othre-promptly signaled its origin beyond our planetary neighborhood.
The discovery marks a rare opportunity for scientists to study material originating from outside our solar system. Only two interstellar objects have been previously identified: 1I/Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borissov in 2019.
Like 2I/Borissov, 3I/Atlas has been identified as a comet, exhibiting degassing around its nucleus and a visible coma-the characteristic “hair” of comets-observed in the direction opposite the Sun. the comet is traveling at a significantly higher speed than typical comets within our solar system. Early July observations placed 3I/Atlas at 4.5 times the Earth-Sun distance, moving at 61 kilometers per second-three to five times faster than comets originating from the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt, the solar system’s primary comet reservoirs. This high velocity aligns with previous observations of Oumuamua and Borissov, though those objects traveled at slightly slower speeds.
The discovery was made using a network of telescopes funded by NASA to monitor asteroids that cross Earth’s orbit. Astronomers continue to observe 3I/Atlas with both ground-based and space-based telescopes, hoping to unlock further secrets about its composition and origin.
