Posted on 07/22/2025 10:50:49 AM PDT by DFG
Earth's famous Hubble Telescope has just revealed the first images of a mysterious interstellar object racing through our solar system.
Spotted on Monday, Hubble has helped astronomers confirm that the massive, high-speed visitor is a comet from a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy.
First spotted in late June, the comet named 3I/ATLAS has been on an 800-million-year journey to reach this solar system.
The new images from Hubble captured what appears to be an icy tail that's ejecting rocky material from its 12-mile-long core.
Those observations were reinforced by a new study published Tuesday morning which revealed 3I/ATLAS has water ice present in its coma, the luminous cloud of gas and dust surrounding a comet's nucleus.
That revelation about 3I/ATLAS also confirmed that life-giving water exists far beyond our solar system, carried by comets throughout the cosmos, and potentially spreading the building blocks of life to other worlds.
The giant comet has become the third interstellar object recorded by astronomers entering the solar system, joining Oumuamua in 2017 and the comet Borisov in 2019.
It will make its closest pass to Earth on December 17 as it speeds through the solar system at 41 miles per second (roughly 150,000 miles per hour).
The new study published on the pre-print server arXiv, also revealed that the comet's coma is made up of 30 percent water ice and 70 percent of a dust similar to a type of meteorite (Tagish Lake) that contains organic materials.
While the study didn't detect organic molecules directly, the reddish dust in 3I/ATLAS resembles D-type asteroids, which are known to sometimes carry simple organic compounds like amino acids or hydrocarbons.
These are the kinds of molecules that could, under the right conditions, contribute to the chemistry needed for life on a distant planet.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Good
About time.
Ohhhkayyy. And how far along are we on this journey?
“...It will make its closest pass to Earth on December 17...”
And after 800 million years of spewing out rocky icy debris there is still anything left of it?
I am skeptical.
And don't tell me to read the article. I have things to do. Ish.
Comets only spew when they’re in proximity to stars, and you have no idea how large the thing was in the first place.
Not very. 170 million miles from Earth. It’s closest approach to Mars is only 18 million miles though.
It’s going to come within 37 feet of earth....
KISS YOUR A** GOODBYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Trump’s fault.
Pbbbbbbt! Who cares how close it comes to Mars? Other than Marvin The Martian. EVERYthing makes him angry.
This was only spotted a month ago and it’s going to pass Us in december. Let’s just hope there isn’t a whole storm of these things coming in from elsewhere.
Remind me to stay clear of Buenos Aires in December.
Oumuamua in 2017 was an alien spacecraft. You may remember it wasn’t ‘discovered’ until after it was past us. As it moved away from the Sun, it exhibited a slight acceleration, an effect not explained by gravitational forces alone. There was also no visible tail or coma. Oumuamua means ‘scout’, or ‘in advance of’, or literally, “a messenger from afar arriving first”. Ouamuamua was around 300 yards long. This scout - looking for a ‘blue planet’ - found Earth in 2017, and sent for the Mothership - 31/ATLAS - which, at fourteen miles long, will arrive here on December 17th. Their technology is hundreds of millions of years advanced. They are coming here to colonize.
to clean the ejectors.
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