New comet discovered with origin outside the Solar System
Astronomers have detected a new comet originating from outside the Solar System, which they have named 3I/ATLAS , the third of its kind ever observed, after 1I/Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019.
The interstellar comet was spotted for the first time on Tuesday by the ATLAS telescope in Chile, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Thursday, which made observations on Wednesday with one of the telescopes at the Las Cumbres Observatory in Hawaii, United States, confirming the existence of 3I/ATLAS.
“ Its unusual trajectory immediately raised suspicions that it originated in interstellar space ,” ESA said in a statement, adding that, as of today, the comet is about 670 million kilometres from the Sun and will make its closest approach at the end of October, passing through the orbit of Mars.
Astronomers estimate that the comet is up to 20 kilometers wide and traveling at about 60 kilometers per second relative to the Sun.
According to ESA, 3I/ATLAS does not pose any danger to Earth , from which it will be at most 240 million kilometres away, more than 1.5 times the distance that separates the planet from the Sun.
When the comet reaches its closest point to Earth it will be hidden behind the Sun, and is expected to reappear in early December to provide astronomers with a new window of opportunity to study it.
Since 3I/ATLAS is an active comet, if it heats up enough as it approaches the Sun it could begin to sublimate, a process in which frozen gases turn to vapor, carrying dust and ice particles into space to form a bright coma and tail.
Unlike the planets, moons and asteroids of the Solar System, which share the same origin, interstellar objects like comet 3I/ATLAS “are remnants of other planetary systems” that carry clues about the formation of worlds far beyond Earth, ESA points out.
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