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Astronomers caught a glimpse of an unusual object last week on a telescope normally used to detect asteroids. While this object – now confirmed as a comet – is far away and not a threat to smashing into Earth, its unique trajectory quickly started generating chatter on social media. Scientists were starting to suspect that it could be from outside the solar system.
Intrigued by the posts I’d been seeing about the object, now called Comet 3I/ATLAS, I contacted Darryl Seligman, an astrophysicist at Michigan State University who had written about space rocks for us before. I caught him in the midst of sorting through and analyzing observations of this strange new object. When we spoke, I could feel his excitement through the phone, even from hundreds of miles away.
A few hours before our call, the European Space Agency had confirmed that 3I/ATLAS was interstellar in nature based on its orbital path, making it the third object from outside the solar system ever discovered. During our interview, Seligman talked through some of its unique features – 3I/ATLAS is faster, larger and brighter than the two previously discovered interstellar objects. And since it’s big and bright enough to be seen from far away, telescopes on Earth will have the chance to observe it for much longer than they could previous interstellar objects.
Researchers have confirmed that 3I/ATLAS is a comet, meaning it has an icy core and a tail of dust and gas. Seligman explains why that’s significant and what astronomers hope this visitor will tell them about how planets are formed outside our own solar system.
Also in this week’s science news:
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