Science According to their people, a mysterious interstellar object identified by astronomers last week may be the oldest comet to have ever seen.
The team from Oxford University, 3I/Atlas, suggests that this object can be 3 billion years older than our own solar system.
The pre -findings were presented today at the national meeting of the Royal Astronomy Society of England in Durham. “3/Atlas excited us all very much, Mat said Matthew Hopkins from Oxford University, BBC. Based on the speed of the object, Hopkins says it can be older than 7 billion years and may be the most remarkable international visitor so far.
As far as Jupiter
3I/Atlas was first identified on 1 July 2025 when the Atlas research in Chile was about 670 million km away from the Sun. Currently, it can only be seen with very large telescopes and Worldas far as Jupiter. Since then, astronomers around the world have been competing to determine his path and discover more details about him.
Hopkins believes that the Milky Way is caused by the “thick disk”. This is a group of old stars that rotate in orbit above and under the area where the Sun and most stars are located. The team believes that 3I/Atlas is probably formed around an old star. This means that when it approaches the Sun towards the end of this year, the energy coming from the Sun will heat the surface of the object and cause vapor and dust flames. This can create a shining tail.
“It was never seen closely”
Prof Chris Lintot, the co -author of the study, said, “This is an object that comes from a part of the galaxy that we have never seen before. We think that this comet is older than the solar system and that it has been dragging in interstellar space since then,” he said.
Hopkins, around the other stars around the other stars, at the beginning of the life of these stars, this connection with the main stars, this connection means that we can look at the star population of the Milky Way, “he added.
In the future days of this year, 3/Atlas can be seen from the Earth with amateur telescopes. 3/Atlas were only seen before becoming visible. One of them was 1I/’Oumuamua in 2017 and the other was 2I/Borisov discovered in 2019.
