Overview

• The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System first detected the object in late June and the Minor Planet Center officially designated it 3I/ATLAS on July 1.
• Observations show it is hurtling through at over 60 km/s on a hyperbolic trajectory that will carry it past the Sun only once.
• Preliminary measurements estimate a diameter of about 20 kilometers and reveal a faint coma suggesting cometary activity.
• 3I/ATLAS is set to reach perihelion on October 30 at roughly two astronomical units from the Sun before it departs back into interstellar space.
• NASA and ESA emphasize the object poses no threat to Earth and offer astronomers a rare opportunity to analyze primordial material from another star system.