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A mysterious intergalactic object could potentially be a “hostile” alien spacecraft that’s slated to attack our planet in November, according to a controversial new study by a small group of scientists. “The consequences, should the hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity,” the researchers wrote in the inflammatory paper, which was published July 16 to the preprint server arXiv, South West News Service reported. Dubbed 3I/ATLAS, the interstellar entity was discovered on July 1...

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...

Scientists are racing to learn as much as possible about the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS before it fades from view forever The interstellar object 3I/ATLAS appears as a blurry, dust-shrouded dot in this image from the Gemini North telescope. Future observations should reveal much more about this mysterious object, the third known visitor from beyond our solar system. International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/K. Meech (IfA/U. Hawaii) Image Processing: Jen Miller & Mahdi Zamani (NSF NOIRLab) (CC BY 4.0) ================================================================= Earlier this month astronomers were thrilled to discover only the third known interstellar object ever seen in our solar system. Now dubbed 3I/ATLAS, the...

Explanation: It came from outer space. An object from outside our Solar System is now passing through at high speed. Classified as a comet because of its gaseous coma, 3I/ATLAS is only the third identified macroscopic object as being so alien. The comet's trajectory is shown in white on the featured map, where the orbits of Jupiter, Mars, and Earth are shown in gold, red, and blue. Currently Comet 3I/ATLAS is about the distance of Jupiter from the Sun -- but closing, with its closest approach to our Sun expected to be within the orbit of Mars in late October....

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 using the Gemini North telescope at NSF’s International Gemini Observatory have captured 3I/ATLAS as it makes its temporary passage through our cosmic neighborhood ============================================================== This image from the Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS-N) at the Gemini North telescope shows the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / K. Meech, IfA & U. Hawaii / Jen Miller & Mahdi Zamani, NOIRLab. Interstellar objects are objects that originate outside of, and are observed passing through, our Solar System. Ranging from tens of meters to a few kilometers in size, these objects are pieces of cosmic...

Explanation: Discovered on July 1 with the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert, System) survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, 3I/ATLAS is so designated as the third known interstellar object to pass through our Solar System It follows 1I/ʻOumuamua in 2017 and the comet 2I/Borisov in 2019. Also known as C/2025 N1, 3I/ATLAS is clearly a comet, its diffuse cometary coma, a cloud of gas and dust surrounding an icy nucleus, is easily seen in these images from the large Gemini North telescope on Maunakea, Hawai‘i. The left panel tracks the comet as it moves across the sky against fixed...

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...

Astronomers are making a surprising breakthrough in the study of Venus, as new simulations suggest there may be a hidden family of asteroids quietly orbiting the Sun alongside the planet. This discovery, detailed in a recent study by Valerio Carruba and his team at São Paulo State University, is like uncovering an entire continent that was previously unknown. The research, published on the preprint server arXiv, uncovers important insights about the dynamics of Venus’ orbit and could have significant implications for our understanding of the solar system. Venus has long been one of the most mysterious planets in our solar...

A newly discovered comet, SWAN25F, is racing across April’s morning sky—catch it now with binoculars before it makes its closest approach to Earth and the sun in early May. Newly Discovered Comet SWAN25F Now Visible—Here’s How to See It Before It Disappears | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel =========================================================================== A new comet, officially designated SWAN25F, has entered the morning skies of the Northern Hemisphere, and it’s already visible with binoculars. The comet was first spotted on April 1, 2025, by Australian amateur astronomer Michael Mattiazo, who identified it in images from SWAN, an instrument aboard the ESA’s SOHO spacecraft....

An artistic representation of Chiron’s nucleus surrounded by debris and a coma of dust and gas. Credit: William Gonzalez Sierra UCF researchers utilized the James Webb Space Telescope to uncover unique characteristics of (2060) Chiron, a distant “centaur” that exhibits traits of both a comet and an asteroid. These findings provide valuable insights into the origins of our Solar System. Although our Solar System is billions of years old, we’ve only recently gained deeper insight into one of its most dynamic and intriguing members: (2060) Chiron. Chiron belongs to a group of celestial objects known as “Centaurs.” These objects orbit...

COMET 2024 G3 LEFT THE WOLF HEAD and it's races toward the Sun (Watch date Jan 13th 2025 ) It could be a great object for astronomical observers in the southern hemisphere. Its perihelion, the closest point to the Sun, will occur on 13th January 2025, when it will be only 14 million kilometres from our star.

Explanation: It was a night of 100,000 meteors. The Great Meteor Storm of 1833 was perhaps the most impressive meteor event in recent history. Best visible over eastern North America during the pre-dawn hours of November 13, many people -- including a young Abraham Lincoln -- were woken up to see the sky erupt in streaks and flashes. Hundreds of thousands of meteors blazed across the sky, seemingly pouring out of the constellation of the Lion (Leo). The featured image is a digitization of a wood engraving which itself was based on a painting from a first-person account. We know...

A piece of the famous Halley's comet likely slammed into Earth in A.D. 536, blasting so much dust into the atmosphere that the planet cooled considerably, a new study suggests. This dramatic climate shift is linked to drought and famine around the world, which may have made humanity more susceptible to "Justinian's plague" in A.D. 541-542 — the first recorded emergence of the Black Death in Europe. The new results come from an analysis of Greenland ice that was laid down between A.D. 533 and 540. The ice cores record large amounts of atmospheric dust during this seven-year period, not...

Double impact may have caused tsunami, global cooling Pieces of a giant asteroid or comet that broke apart over Earth may have crashed off Australia about 1,500 years ago, says a scientist who has found evidence of the possible impact craters. Satellite measurements of the Gulf of Carpentaria (see map) revealed tiny changes in sea level that are signs of impact craters on the seabed below, according to new research by marine geophysicist Dallas Abbott. Based on the satellite data, one crater should be about 11 miles (18 kilometers) wide, while the other should be 7.4 miles (12 kilometers) wide....

Multiple comet impacts around 1500 years ago triggered a "dry fog" that plunged half the world into famine. Historical records tell us that from the beginning of March 536 AD, a fog of dust blanketed the atmosphere for 18 months. During this time, "the sun gave no more light than the moon", global temperatures plummeted and crops failed, says Dallas Abbott of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York... Now Abbott and her team have found the first direct evidence that multiple impacts caused the haze. They found tiny balls of condensed rock vapour or "spherules" in debris inside...

Explanation: On October 14 it was hard to capture a full view of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. Taken after the comet's closest approach to our fair planet, this evening skyview almost does though. With two telephoto frames combined, the image stretches about 26 degrees across the sky from top to bottom, looking west from Gates Pass, Tucson, Arizona. Comet watchers that night could even identify globular star cluster M5 and the faint apparition of periodic comet 13P Olbers near the long the path of Tsuchinshan-ATLAS's whitish dust tail above the bright comet's coma. Due to perspective as the Earth is...

Okay, this is starting to get really weird. At the same time that the Middle East is erupting in flames, the U.S. is being pummeled by major natural disasters and we are preparing for the most pivotal election in modern history, extremely unusual things are happening in the heavens. The “Comet of the Century” is making a spectacular run past our planet, the Sun has unleashed an extremely powerful coronal mass ejection, a “second Moon” is now orbiting our world, and it is being suggested that we are witnessing an “intriguing alignment of constellations and stars” that appears to relate...

Bright Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Becomes Visible in Evening Sky by Clarence Oxford Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 10, 2024 Starting October 11th, Northern Hemisphere observers will have the chance to see Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in the evening sky for the first time in years. The comet will make its first evening appearance on Friday, visible low in the west during twilight. It will rise higher and become more easily visible throughout the weekend, reaching its peak visibility early next week. Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (C/2023 A3), discovered in early 2023, is now nearing Earth after swinging around the Sun on September 27th. On October...

Explanation: Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) is growing brighter in planet Earth's sky. Fondly known as comet A3, this new visitor to the inner Solar System is traveling from the distant Oort cloud. The comet reached perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, on September 27 and will reach perigee, its closest to our fair planet, on October 12, by then becoming an evening sky apparition. But comet A3 was an early morning riser on September 30 when this image was made. Its bright coma and already long tail share a pre-dawn skyscape from Praia Grande, Santa Catarina in southern Brazil...