New Images of Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS

The Hubble and Vera Rubin telescopes have captured images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object detected in the Solar System.

3I/ATLAS, approximately 10 kilometers in diameter, appears to originate from the center of the Galaxy and is moving at a speed of 60 km/s. It will pass the Sun in October.

The object was discovered by NASA's ATLAS telescope network. Observations indicate that it is mainly composed of water ice, organic molecules, and silicate minerals. Its age is estimated at 7 billion years, much older than the Solar System (4.6 billion years).

Astronomers hope that the Vera Rubin telescope will detect up to 50 interstellar objects in the next decade.

Previous interstellar visitors were Oumuamua (2017) and comet 2I/Borisov (2019).