Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is visiting us after 1 million years
Say hello to 3I/ATLAS, a rare interstellar comet discovered this July. It's only the third object we've spotted coming from outside our solar system, zipping along at about 209,000km/h.
Astronomers even found signs of its activity way out at six times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
What have we learned about it?
Space telescopes like Hubble and James Webb have been checking it out. They found the comet's coma has way more carbon dioxide than water—pretty unusual!
At first, it just looked like a dust cloud with no tail, but later images caught a tail forming.
The core could be anywhere from 320 meters up to over 5km wide.
It will pass by Earth in December
3I/ATLAS will keep getting brighter until September 2025 but will soon slip out of view as it swings closest to the Sun around October 30 (just inside Mars's orbit).
Its closest pass by Earth is on December 19, about 270 million km away—not exactly next door!
Spacecraft orbiting Mars and Jupiter are gearing up for some cool observation opportunities as it flies by.