Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS showed chemical change after solar flyby
The comet 3I/ATLAS, which came from outside our solar system, showed some pretty big chemical changes after swinging close to the Sun.
Spotted by scientists with the Subaru Telescope near Maunakea, Hawaii, on January 7, it's only the third confirmed interstellar visitor we've seen.
When researchers checked out its coma (that's the cloud of gas around it), they noticed a surprising shift in the carbon dioxide-to-water ratio after its solar flyby last October.
Findings could help explain planet formation
These findings, set to be published soon, could help scientists understand how planets and other space rocks form in different star systems.
As Yoshiharu Shinnaka from Koyama Space Science Institute put it, this discovery could open doors to spotting more interstellar objects and figuring out why worlds across the universe can be so different from each other.