A mysterious object hurtling through space has been identified as a rare “interstellar object,” only the third of its kind ever seen.
In July, NASA reported its ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey telescope in Chile identified a comet that originated from interstellar space. Arriving in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, the comet was dubbed 3I/Atlas.
The comet poses no threat to Earth – it will remain at a distance of about 150 million miles away – but is unique. According to Livescience, the object is traveling towards the sun extremely fast, around 152 mph and is on an flat and straight trajectory that’s unlike anything else in the solar system.
NASA has confirmed 3I/Atlas is an interstellar object, meaning it originated outside our solar system and is briefly traveling through it. It’s only the third such object to have ever been spotted after Comet 2I/Borisov passed through in 2019 and ‘Oumuamua, a cigar-shaped object that appeared in 2017 and sparked a social media fury after it was suggested it was an alien probe.
Scientists are studying the size and makeup of 3I/Atlas but NASA said it should be visible to ground-based telescopes through September, though after that it will pass too close to the sun to be seen. It will reappear on the other side of the sun by Sunday and remain visible through early December.
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