A Threat To Earth? NASA Detects New 'Interstellar Object' Zipping Through Solar System
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Ammon
6 hours ago
- Ammon
Newly spotted comet is third interstellar object seen in our solar system
Ammon News - Astronomers are tracking a newly spotted comet hailing from parts unknown, only the third time such an interstellar object has been observed visiting our solar system. According to U.S. space agency NASA, the interloper - named 3I/ATLAS - was first spotted on Tuesday by an Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, telescope located in Rio Hurtado, Chile. Astronomers said its unusual trajectory indicated it had ventured from beyond our solar system. Journeying at a speed of around 37 miles (60 km) per second from the direction of the center of the Milky Way galaxy, 3I/ATLAS is presently located about 420 million miles (670 million kilometers) from Earth. "Beyond that we do not know very much, and there are many efforts underway to observe this object with larger telescopes to determine composition," University of Hawaii astronomer Larry Denneau, co-principal investigator for ATLAS, said on Thursday. The only other such interstellar visitors previously observed by astronomers were objects called 1I/'Oumuamua (pronounced oh-MOO-uh-MOO-uh), detected in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019. "The comet has some similarities to 2I/Borisov in that it appears to be an icy comet, but it is much larger, possibly 10 km (6.2 miles) in diameter," Denneau said. "It currently has a faint coma," Denneau added, referring to the cloud of gas and dust surrounding a comet's nucleus, "but the coma and tail may increase dramatically as the object comes closer to the sun. Its closest approach to the sun will be later this year, when it will come inside the orbit of Mars. We don't know what will happen, so that's exciting." Astronomers said the comet poses no threat to Earth and will never come closer than 150 million miles (240 million km) away, equivalent to more than 1-1/2 times the distance between Earth and the sun. It is currently located about 416 million miles (670 million km) from the sun and will reach its closest approach to the sun around October 30, when it will be about 130 million miles (210 million km) away from our star. The ATLAS network is a NASA-funded telescope survey built and operated by the University of Hawaii, with five telescopes around the world that scan the night sky continuously to look for objects that could threaten Earth. Reuters
News18
13 hours ago
- News18
A Threat To Earth? NASA Detects New 'Interstellar Object' Zipping Through Solar System
Astronomers discovered 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object moving at over 60 km/s towards the Sun. It's the third known object from outside our solar system and will soon leave it.
DW
a day ago
- DW
Should we panic about interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS? – DW – 07/04/2025
Sometimes "the universe comes to us," writes the European Space Agency. For the third time since 2017, an interstellar object will enter our solar system. What is it and are we prepared? Beyond the fact that this is the third known interstellar object to have entered our solar system, "we don't know very much," said Larry Denneau, co-principle investigator at ATLAS, a telescope in Chile that spotted 3I/ATLAS on July 1, 2025. It's not exactly reassuring when scientists say "we don't know," but at least it's honest. Astronomers do know that 3I/ATLAS is a comet that's about 670 million kilometers (416 million miles) away from the sun. Based on current projections, it poses no danger to planet Earth. "Scientists are still determining the velocity and trajectory to a degree that will allow accurate predictions for the future," wrote Richard Moissl, who heads the European Space Agency's Planetary Defense office, in an email to DW. The closest it will get to our planet is about 240 million kilometers away, when it will fly by in October. That is more than 1.5 times the distance between us and the sun, and about 624 times the distance between the Earth and our moon. It is also thought to be about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) wide and traveling at about 60 kilometers per second (an impressive 134,000 miles per hour). But this is all relatively basic data — the very data that allowed astronomers at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System in Chile to spot it. When they saw the object on an unusual trajectory, they immediately began to track and measure it. Then, other astronomers based at telescopes in Hawaii and Australia, began monitoring the object's flight progress and confirmed it as an interstellar comet. "We are seeing an onset of [normal] cometary activity," wrote Moissl. Comet 3I/ATLAS flew through the heliosphere to enter our solar system. The heliosphere is a barrier that protects us from interstellar winds and radiation. The heliosphere is, however, an imperfect barrier — some interstellar radiation gets through, and it clearly doesn't stop icy intergalactic wanderers like 3I/ATLAS. Interstellar objects in our solar system are thought to be quite rare though. The first known interstellar object was 1I/'Oumuamua, detected in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, detected in 2019. "This is only the third interstellar [object] ever to be detected, hence a precise forecast of the expected frequency is not possible at this point," wrote Moissl. But telescopes have got more technologically advanced and scientists do now scan the night sky continuously. So we may begin to see more of them. "The Legacy Survey in Space and Time at the Vera Rubins telescope in Chile goes online this year. It is more efficient than existing surveys and expected to detect several new Interstellar objects over the next 10 years," said Moissl's colleague at ESA, Michael Kueppers. Kueppers is a Comet Interceptor Project scientist. Comet Interceptor is a spacecraft that will rest in a "parking orbit" and intercept distant comets and asteroids if they come too close to Earth. It's scheduled to launch in 2029. The short (and obvious) answer is that comets, like 3I/ATLAS, 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov, come from other planetary systems. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Much like comets and asteroids within our solar system, interstellar objects are considered to be untouched specimens from elsewhere in our galaxy, the Milky Way, if not fragments from the very beginnings of the universe. Moissl said this new object "came roughly from the direction of the Galactic Center region," which, as the name suggests, is towards the center of the Milky Way. But astronomers do not know its precise origin or "home star." Based on its brightness, 3I/ATLAS appears to be bigger than the other two stray comets — 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov — which are thought to have entered our solar system from a different region of the Milky Way. Astronomers will want to continue monitoring 3I/ATLAS to assess its composition and behavior. ESA said that as an active comet, it may heat up as it gets closer to Earth, and "sublimate" — that's when frozen gases on a comet turn into vapor, creating a glowing coma and trail of dust and ice particles. You should be able to see it from Earth with a telescope by September — but "you'll need a big telescope to see it," wrote Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in an email to DW. When it's closest to Earth it will be hidden by the sun but then reappear by early December.
