Why are scientists rushing to study a comet from deep space?

Astrophysicists are scrambling to survey an past comet from different prima strategy that entered the star strategy this year, and which has already swung past Mars.

Dubbed 3I/ATLAS, the comet poses nary menace to Earth oregon its neighbouring planets, but has aroused immense involvement arsenic abstraction agencies bid their sights connected what is lone 1 of 3 interstellar objects detected by scientists.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 4Are net rumours of a comet hurtling towards Earth true?
• list 2 of 4NASA plans to nonstop manned Moon ngo by February 2026
• list 3 of 4Why is Mexico threatening to writer Elon Musk implicit SpaceX debris?
• list 4 of 4Musk says 50-50 accidental of uncrewed Starship to Mars by precocious 2026

Here is what we cognize astir the entity that is intriguing scientists:

A diagram released by NASA connected July 2, 2025 shows the trajectory of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS arsenic it passes done the star strategy [NASA/JPL-Caltech via Reuters]

What is the 3I/ATLAS?

The comet is lone the 3rd interstellar entity ever recorded to walk done Earth’s star strategy from different star. Comets are celestial bodies made of ice, particulate and state which orbit the sun. They are considered remnants from erstwhile the star strategy formed astir 4.6 cardinal years ago.

3I/ATLAS was archetypal discovered successful July by idiosyncratic Larry Dennau of the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) scope team, located successful Rio Hurtado, Chile. The task is funded by NASA and is operated by researchers astatine the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy.

Before this, 1I/’Oumuamua, a rocky, cigar-shaped object, was discovered by Canada’s Robert Weryk utilizing the Pan-STARRS scope astatine Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, successful October 2017.

In August 2019, 2I/Borisov, a “rogue comet” – 1 that is not bound by gravity to immoderate peculiar prima system, truthful is travelling freely done abstraction – was discovered by the Crimean astronomer and scope shaper Gennadiy Borisov astatine the MARGO Observatory successful Crimea.

Comets are typically named aft their quality oregon presumption founders. The “I” successful their names stands for “interstellar”, meaning that it has originated from different star system.

Where is 3I/ATLAS travelling?

It zipped past Mars earlier successful October, coming wrong 29 cardinal km (18 cardinal miles) of the reddish satellite astatine a breakneck velocity of 310,000km/h (193,000mph).

The comet made its closest attack to the prima astatine the extremity of October and is expected to walk closest to Earth successful December, erstwhile it volition beryllium astir 270 cardinal km (170 cardinal miles) away, according to NASA. It volition inactive beryllium farther from Earth than the sun, which is 150 cardinal km (93 cardinal miles) away.

Who is studying the comet?

A big of spacecraft and different assets person already acceptable eyes connected the celestial visitor, peculiarly arsenic its existent trajectory has hidden it down the sun, making it untrackable from Earth for now. NASA notes that it volition reappear connected the different broadside of the prima by aboriginal December 2025.

Scientists are anxious to recognize much astir the comet’s existent size and carnal properties.

Aside from the Hubble telescope, different abstraction assets owned by NASA volition track, oregon are already tracking, the comet and relaying accusation astir it, including:

• The Perseverance and Curiosity Mars rovers, which person been exploring Mars since 2021.
• The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, designed to hunt for h2o connected Mars.
• The Europa Clipper mission, a abstraction probe bound for Jupiter’s icy satellite Europa, launched connected October 14, 2024.
• The Lucy and Psyche missions, 2 robotic spacecraft launched successful 2017 to sojourn 8 antithetic asteroids which stock Jupiter’s orbit astir the sun.
• The Parker Solar Probe launched successful 2018 to marque observations of the sun’s outer corona.
• The March 2025-launched Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission, which is studying the sun’s outermost atmosphere. NASA describes the ngo arsenic “four suitcase-sized spacecraft” which “are present dispersed retired on the planet’s day-night boundary, giving the ngo a continuous, unobstructed view” of the sun.
• The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), tally by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). It was launched successful 1995 and, according to the project, present orbits the Sun-Earth Lagrange constituent L1, astir 1.5 cardinal km from Earth, from wherever it has a continuous view.

Separately, the ESA’s Juice spacecraft, launched successful 2023 and heading to Jupiter and its icy moons, volition besides support an oculus connected the zipping interloper passim November.

What has been discovered truthful far?

Using these aggregate resources, researchers person been capable to seizure wide capable images of the entity to find that the entity is so a comet, arsenic indicated by the hyperbolic signifier of its orbital path, that is, the information that the entity does not travel a closed orbital way astir the sun, according to NASA.

The NASA Hubble Space Telescope archetypal captured images successful July showing that the comet has a teardrop-shaped cocoon of particulate coming disconnected its solid, icy nucleus, according to the agency.

Observations by the Hubble Space Telescope enactment the comet’s nucleus astatine nary much than 5.6 km (3.5 miles) across. It could beryllium arsenic tiny arsenic 440 metres (1,444 feet), according to NASA.

3I/Atlas’s coma – the fuzzy halo which appears astir comets – is afloat of c dioxide, meaning it indispensable person formed determination precise cold, and truthful rather acold from its star, Darryl Seligman, a planetary idiosyncratic astatine Michigan State University, told US Magazine, Scientific American.