On Wednesday, July 2, NASA officially confirmed that a mysterious space object, that flew into the solar system from interstellar space is probably a comet.
The object was originally named A11pl3Z when it was first detected by the Asteroid Impactor Near Earth System (ATLAS). Currently, the space object is moving towards the Sun at a speed of 245 thousand km/h in a very straight line. On Wednesday, July 2, NASA officially confirmed that the mysterious object is probably a comet. Since then, it has been named 3I/ATLAS.
According to astronomers, the diameter of 3I/ATLAS is about 20 km. The object is currently about 4.5 times farther from the Sun than the Earth. The comet is scheduled to come closest to the Sun on October 30, within 1.4 AU. Before that, the space object will also fly close to Mars, approaching the Red Planet at a distance of 0.4 AU. According to astrophysicists, 3I/ATLAS is likely to be mostly composed of ice and may be much smaller.
«We believe that these small icy comets are formed under the influence of star systems. Then, when another star passes by, it pulls the comet along and throws it out. Such an object becomes a vagrant, wandering around the galaxy, and now just passes us by», — notes astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Jonathan McDowell.
While the comet is flying close to the Sun, our planet will be on the opposite side of the star. The object is likely to come closest to Earth in December. According to NASA, 3I/ATLAS does not pose a threat to our planet and will remain at a distance of 1.4 AU.
This is only the third recorded object that flies into the solar system from interstellar space. For the first time, a space object that came to us from interstellar space was detected in 2017. It turned out to be an asteroid «Oumuamua». Some scientists initially classified it as an alien probe, but these claims were later refuted. In 2019, comet 2I/Borisov entered the Solar System.
Source: LiveScience
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