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Perth Now
5 days ago
- Science
- Perth Now
NASA issues major update on ‘interstellar object' hurtling through solar system
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has released a striking update on a mysterious comet racing through our solar system from another star. The object, named 3I/ATLAS, was first detected on 1 July around 420 million miles from the Sun. Now, the Hubble Space Telescope has captured the clearest images yet, showing it speeding at a record-breaking 130,000mph - the fastest interstellar object ever found. The images reveal that 3I/ATLAS is far smaller than first believed, with an icy core between 1,000 feet and 3.5 miles wide. Despite its size, it is still the largest known interstellar visitor, up to 14 times bigger than the second largest. Scientists are confident it is a comet made of ice, dust, and frozen gases, with a tail and dust plume visible as it moves closer to the Sun. It will make its nearest approach in late October, passing 130 million miles from the Sun - inside Mars' orbit – but poses no danger to Earth. Dr David Jewitt, science team leader for the Hubble observations, said: 'No one knows where the comet came from. 'It's like glimpsing a rifle bullet for a thousandth of a second. You can't project that back with any accuracy to figure out where it started on its path.' Believed to be over eight billion years old, 3I/ATLAS is only the third interstellar object ever detected, following 1I/'Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. More telescopes, including the James Webb Space Telescope, will observe it before it disappears from view later this year.
NDTV
7 days ago
- Science
- NDTV
NASA Shares New Details About Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS That's Hurtling Towards Earth
NASA has shared new details about the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, which was discovered last month on July 1 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) at a distance of 675 million kilometres from the Sun. The US-based space agency announced that a team of astronomers captured the sharpest-ever image of the comet using the Hubble Space Telescope's crisp vision. According to Hubble, the comet's nucleus size is approximately between 320 meters and 5.6 kilometres in diameter. Earlier, scientists estimated that the size of its icy core is around several miles (tens of kilometres). NASA stated that the new images give fresh insights into the comet, but the solid heart of the comet presently cannot be directly seen, even by Hubble. The space agency also said that 3I/ATLAS is travelling through our solar system at a staggering 130,000 miles (209,000 kilometres) per hour. It is the highest velocity ever recorded for a solar system visitor. "No one knows where the comet came from. It's like glimpsing a rifle bullet for a thousandth of a second. You can't project that back with any accuracy to figure out where it started on its path," David Jewitt of the University of California, Los Angeles, science team leader for the Hubble observations, said as quoted by NASA. Hubble also captured a dust plume ejected from the Sun-warmed side of the comet and a hint of a dust tail streaming away from the nucleus. "This latest interstellar tourist is one of a previously undetected population of objects bursting onto the scene that will gradually emerge," said Jewitt. "This is now possible because we have powerful sky survey capabilities that we didn't have before. We've crossed a threshold."
USA Today
08-08-2025
- Science
- USA Today
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope gets look at interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. How big is it?
The image, which NASA bills as "the sharpest-ever picture" of the comet, gives scientists a better idea of the interstellar visitor's size. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has gotten an up-close look at a headline-grabbing object known as 3I/ATLAS that has recently wandered into Earth's cosmic neighborhood from far away. The image, which NASA bills as "the sharpest-ever picture" of an object most astronomers agree is almost definitely a comet, depicts the interstellar visitor that originated from outside our solar system from elsewhere in the Milky Way. 3I/ATLAS first made news in early July when scientists confirmed it as the third-ever observed interstellar interloper in our solar system. The space object further attracted the public's fascination again later in the month when a controversial astrophysicist from Harvard University began claiming it could be an alien spaceship. What we definitely know about 3I/ATLAS is that it has been drifting through interstellar space for billions of years, gaining speed from the gravitational slingshot effect of passing countless stars and nebulas. Fortunately, Hubble is just the first in NASA's fleet of telescopes slated to observe the likely comet as scientists look to learn more about the object's size of physical properties. What is 3I/ATLAS? A likely comet known as 3I/ATLAS made news in July when it was confirmed to have originated outside Earth's solar system, which makes it just one of three known interstellar objects ever discovered in our cosmic neighborhood. What's more, the object, which scientists estimate to be more than 12 miles wide, is whizzing at 130,000 miles per hour relative to the sun on a trajectory that on Oct. 30 will bring it within about 130 million miles of Earth, according to NASA. A telescope in Chile – part of the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS – was the first to spot what initially looked like an unknown asteroid on a path approaching Earth's orbit. The observation was reported to the Minor Planet Center, the official authority for observing and reporting new asteroids, comets and other small bodies in the solar system. The object, eventually confirmed to almost certainly be a comet and named 3I/ATLAS, was later confirmed to have interstellar origins after follow-up observations. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope gets a look at likely comet Hubble's observations of 3I/ATLAS have allowed astronomers to more accurately estimate the size of the comet's solid, icy nucleus. Hubble captured the image of the comet on July 21, which NASA released Thursday, Aug. 7, in a blog post. The upper limit on the diameter of the comet's nucleus is anywhere between 1,000 feet to 3.5 miles across, researchers concluded. Hubble's observations may have helped pinpoint the comet's size, but scientists still have not determined what comprises its core. Its precise cosmic origins also remain a mystery. 'No one knows where the comet came from," David Jewitt, an astronomer at the University of California who authored a research paper about the Hubble findings, said in a statement. "It's like glimpsing a rifle bullet for a thousandth of a second. You can't project that back with any accuracy to figure out where it started on its path.' Observations from other NASA missions, including the infrared James Webb Space Telescope, "will help further refine our knowledge about the comet, including its chemical makeup," NASA said. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb suggests 3I/ATLAS is alien tech Not all researchers have been convinced that 3I/ATLAS is a comet. Avi Loeb, an astrophysicist from Harvard University, authored a paper with two others – uploaded July 16 to the preprint server arXiv – speculating about whether the object could be "hostile" alien technology. Loeb has long had a preoccupation with extraterrestrials – even co-founding the Galileo Project, a research program at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics dedicated to the search for alien life. But while Loeb has often encouraged scientists to have an open mind about extraterrestrials, his theories and research have often rankled other astrophysicists in the field, who push back on some of his bolder claims. For instance, when the first interstellar object ever detected in our solar system was spotted in 2017, Loeb similarly posited that it was of extraterrestrial origin – a theory later debunked. Contributing: Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@
Time of India
08-08-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Comet or alien spaceship? World's most powerful Hubble telescope captures stunning view of 3I/ATLAS traveling at 210,000 kmph
Comet 3I/ATLAS, a rare interstellar visitor, is racing through our Solar System at record speed, offering astronomers a rare chance to study a cosmic object from beyond. Captured in striking detail by the Hubble Space Telescope, the comet shows a forward-facing dust glow and no visible gas—breaking the rules of what scientists expect from comets. Its exact origin remains a mystery, and experts believe it could be billions of years old. More answers may come from upcoming infrared observations. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads A dusty glow that defies expectation Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads How big is it really? A visitor from deep time Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Just the tip of the iceberg? A new era in skywatching For only the third time in recorded history, scientists are observing an object not born in our Solar System as it makes a fast, mysterious pass through. The interstellar comet known as 3I/ATLAS has just become the fastest foreign visitor ever detected, clocking speeds of 210,000 kilometres per spotted on 1 July 2025 by the ATLAS survey system when it was 675 million kilometres from the Sun, 3I/ATLAS has since drawn the attention of the world's top telescopes. On 21 July, the Hubble Space Telescope managed to capture the clearest image of the comet yet—revealing a cocoon of dust wrapped around an unseen nucleus, and, more curiously, a dust glow that appears ahead of its direction of not how comets usually comets release gas and dust when heated by the Sun, forming visible tails that stream behind them. But 3I/ATLAS has flipped the script. Instead of trailing debris, the comet appears to be glowing in front of its movement, as if it's pushing a dust cloud forward-facing plume puzzled researchers.A paper led by David Jewitt, professor of astronomy at UCLA, suggests that if 3I/ATLAS rotates slowly, its Sun-facing side could remain hot enough to release dust continuously. That dust, moving ahead due to the comet's motion and the slow spin, could create the bright front-facing coma seen in Hubble's comet's rotation has been measured at 16.16 hours, and based on that rate, scientists estimate it takes about 8 hours for its hot side to turn away. During that window, the dust could travel around 10,000 kilometres—enough to explain what Hubble there's a catch. There's no trace of gas emissions—none of the usual suspects like CN, CO+, or neutral oxygen atoms. This was confirmed by a separate study using Chile's SOAR Telescope on 3 July, which showed reflected sunlight but no chemical signatures. The authors wrote:'The paradoxical situation of early onset coma without evidence of sublimation tracers, calls for other dust-liberating mechanisms that ancient interstellar objects may be subjected to.'The heart of 3I/ATLAS—its icy core—remains out of direct sight. But Hubble data has allowed astronomers to make an educated guess. According to The Astrophysical Journal Letters , the nucleus could be anywhere between 320 metres and 5.6 kilometres wide. That estimate is consistent with earlier predictions based on the assumption that interstellar space doesn't offer much solid material to form large observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, along with NASA's Swift Observatory and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), could offer more clarity—especially about the comet's chemical now, 3I/ATLAS will remain visible to telescopes until September, after which it will pass too close to the Sun to be seen. If all goes to plan, it'll reappear on the far side of the Sun in early about 3I/ATLAS points to a long and ancient journey. Scientists believe it's been drifting through interstellar space for billions of years, accelerating slightly each time it passed near stars or through star-forming incredible speed supports this idea. As Matthew Hopkins, a recent doctoral graduate in physics from Oxford University , put it:'3I in particular is remarkable due to its velocity. This velocity is very useful to us in particular as over the last few years me and my coauthors have been building a model that allows us to predict properties of (interstellar objects) such as their age and composition, just from their velocity.'Hopkins was especially struck by the timing of its discovery—just five days after finishing his PhD research, which had focused heavily on predicting new interstellar set to begin a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, Hopkins continues to study the comet using the Ōtautahi–Oxford model—a framework built using data from the Milky Way's stars and planet formation model suggests that 3I/ATLAS has a 67% chance of being older than 7.6 billion years, far older than our 4.5-billion-year-old Sun.3I/ATLAS is only the third interstellar object ever recorded in our Solar System. The others—ʻOumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019—were both unique in their own ways. And now, scientists believe there are many more slipping by unnoticed.'(Interstellar objects) actually pass through the Solar System all the time, especially the smaller ones which are more numerous: 80 the size of 'Oumuamua (about 656 feet, or 200 meters, across) pass through the orbit of Jupiter every year, they're just too small to detect unless they get very close to the Earth,' Hopkins explained in an that might soon newly operational Vera C. Rubin Observatory, equipped with a powerful 8.4-metre-wide mirror, is now scanning the skies every three nights. This gives it a strong chance of catching fast, faint objects like 3I/ and his co-authors estimate that Rubin could detect between 5 and 50 interstellar objects over the next decade. He's hopeful it'll be closer to the higher end. Each discovery brings astronomers closer to understanding the diversity—or possible similarities—among these cosmic telescopes become more powerful, the discovery of 3I/ATLAS may signal a turning point in how we observe and understand space.'This latest interstellar tourist is one of a previously undetected population of objects bursting onto the scene that will gradually emerge,' said David Jewitt. 'This is now possible because we have powerful sky survey capabilities that we didn't have before. We've crossed a threshold.'And while 3I/ATLAS may vanish from view for a few months, the questions it raises aren't going anywhere. Where did it come from? Why does it glow ahead instead of behind? And what exactly is it made of?We don't have all the answers yet. But for the first time, we've got the tools—and the curiosity—to find stay updated on the stories that are going viral follow ET Trending
