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last mo.

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Unveils Glowing Coma and Tail

Global observatories are racing to analyze its outgassing as it nears its October perihelion.

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That small moving dot is our new interstellar visitor, Comet 3I/ATLAS. A new study said it might be 7 billion years old, or 3 billion years older than our own solar system. Image via ESO/ O. Hainaut.
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Overview

  • 3I/ATLAS has begun active outgassing, with sunlight-driven sublimation producing a luminous coma and extending tail.
  • NASA’s Hubble and James Webb space telescopes joined major ground-based facilities in coordinated campaigns to monitor its evolving activity and composition.
  • Trajectory analysis using the Ōtautahi–Oxford model and Gaia stellar data traces the comet to the Milky Way’s thick disk and estimates its age at 7.6–14 billion years.
  • The object is projected to reach perihelion inside Mars’s orbit in October 2025 at about 57 km/s, providing a months-long window for detailed study.
  • Its predicted water ice–rich composition offers a rare opportunity to examine primordial material from an ancient galactic environment