Catch the Cosmic Visitor: An Interstellar Comet Approaches Our Solar System!

Solar systems usually keep to themselves. Ours is no different. Stars are incredibly far apart, making it hard for anything to escape or enter. But sometimes, things do make the journey. Right now, we have a special guest heading our way: 3I/ATLAS. This comet, born near a distant star, is flying through our solar system at a staggering speed of about 130,000 mph. It’s expected to arrive this fall. Exciting, right?

Most of what we know about escaping our solar system comes from our own spacecraft. The Voyager probes are now in interstellar space, and the Pioneer probes are continuing their journeys, despite losing contact with them. The New Horizons mission is on a similar path.

Interestingly, our solar system can also send objects into space. In 1980, a comet named C/1980 E1 (Bowell) had a typical orbit around our Sun. But when it passed close to Jupiter, the giant planet’s gravity altered its path, sending it on a one-way trip out of our solar system. This was a big discovery, suggesting that other solar systems can do the same.

In 2017, we got our first look at an interstellar object named 1I/ʻOumuamua. This elongated object didn’t act like a typical comet—it had no tail and was moving too quickly for us to study it closely. Its unusual features sparked wild theories, including some suggesting it could be an alien spacecraft. In reality, it was likely a wanderer that had been traveling through space for millions of years before passing by our solar system.

Then in 2019, we welcomed another visitor, 2I/Borisov. This comet had a different mix of materials, with less water and more carbon monoxide, hinting at its origins in another solar system. It provided valuable insights into what other solar systems might look like.

Now, as we prepare for 3I/ATLAS, scientists are eager to learn more about it. Discovered by a telescope in Chile, this comet is bright and moving exceptionally fast, confirming its interstellar origins. When it makes its closest approach between October and December, we’ll have the chance to analyze its size and composition—helping us understand how our solar system compares to others.

The arrival of three interstellar visitors in just a few years raises a deeper question: Are these objects rare, or are they often overlooked? The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile aims to answer that. It features a giant telescope and the world’s largest digital camera. Each night, it will capture detailed images of the southern sky, producing a new map every few nights for the next decade. This could help us spot interstellar objects more easily, potentially changing how we view the cosmos.

As we look forward to 3I/ATLAS and beyond, understanding these visitors may not just tell us about their origins, but about our own solar system too.