27monster27 15,962 Posted July 11, 2025 Share Posted July 11, 2025 Disclaimer: No aliens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3I/ATLAS The third known interstellar object ever is traveling through the solar system. Meet 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar comet. This is the third one ever detected, with 1I/'Oumuamua first being detected in 2017 and 2I/Borusov being detected in 2019. 3I/ATLAS will hit its perihelion (closest passage by the sun) on October 29th, 2025. It will come at a distance between the orbits of Mars (1.5 Astronomical Units - AU) and Earth (1 AU) at a distance of ~1.35AU. It is the fastest of the three objects to date. ---- Oh this is so cool! It's unfortunate the Project Lyra, the plan to follow and study intergalactic objects with spacecraft, is not yet ready enough for something like this (3I/ATLAS is also way too fast). Keep in mind that the Solar System is huge, so Oumuamua for example has not yet exited the Solar System and won't for centuries. Since it is slower, it could be studied up close in the coming decades. he/him/his Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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