This mysterious interstellar visitor is on a whirlwind journey through our solar system
A camera on the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer captured Comet 3I/ATLAS last November. We leverage third party services to both verify and deliver email. By providing your email address, you also consent to having the email address shared with third parties for those purposes.
A camera on the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer captured Comet 3I/ATLAS last November.. We leverage third party services to both verify and deliver email. By providing your email address, you also consent to having the email address shared with third parties for those purposes.the orbits of Earth and Mars and reached a speed of more than 150,000 miles per hour during its closest approach to the sun. The rare interstellar guest to our solar systemonto it in a bid to understand what exactly it is, why it is here and where it might be going. Every new piece of data offers a glimpse at the space beyond our solar system. And as the comet, called 3I/ATLAS, speeds through our cosmic neighborhood, space agencies have coopted spacecraft to observe it as it goes. The European Space Agency’s Jupiter-bound spacecraft is no exception: a. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. “While 3I/ATLAS is a visitor from interstellar space, travelling from outside the Solar System, its behaviour is completely in line with that expected from a ‘normal’ comet,” the agency said in a “No one knows where the comet came from,” said David Jewitt, director of the Institute for Planets and Exoplanets at the University of California, Los Angeles, in alast year. “You can’t project that back with any accuracy to figure out where it started on its path.”in July 2025. Its extraordinary speed at the time—137,000 miles per hour—and strange trajectory indicated that it must been traveling through interstellar space for possibly billions of years,have ever been discovered passing through our solar system. And despite the scramble to observe it as it goes, Comet 3I/ATLAS remains very much a mystery. “It’s like glimpsing a rifle bullet for a thousandth of a second,” Jewitt said in the same statement.has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too., you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.
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