Astronomers have found the third interstellar comet to go by means of our photo voltaic system. Named 3I/ATLAS (initially A11pl3Z), it was first noticed July 1 by the ATLAS telescope in Chile and confirmed the identical day. Pre-discovery photos present it within the sky way back to mid-June. The item is racing towards the inside system at roughly 150,000 miles per hour on a near-straight trajectory, too quick for the Solar to seize. Estimates recommend its nucleus could also be 10–20 km throughout. Now inside Jupiter’s orbit, 3I/ATLAS will swing closest to the Solar in October and will stay observable into late 2025.
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