Free Republic

For only the 3rd time in history, astronomers have found an interstellar object hurtling through our solar system...The Minor Planet Center (MPC) confirmed its new designation on July 2, 2025, as 3I/ATLAS, or C/2025 N1. The MPC also said:There are tentative reports of cometary activity … with a marginal coma and a short 3-arcsecond tail....We are currently being visited by what appears to be a comet from another solar system...We only know of two other interstellar objects that have entered into our solar system before, 'Oumuamua and Comet 2I/Borisov. The nature of 'Oumuamua is still a matter of debate, and...

Astronomers have spotted a new comet, moving on a trajectory that indicates that it whizzed into our solar system from interstellar space and is just passing through. It's only the third time scientists have discovered this kind of visitor from outside our solar system. The first two, 'Oumuamua and Comet Borisov, intrigued astronomers because of the chance to observe pieces from another star system beyond our own. "This is like our chance to randomly sample what's going on in the rest of the galaxy," University of Oxford astrophysicist Chris Lintott recently told NPR, saying he and most other researchers really...