One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
NASA spots a new comet flying in from a distant star system
This diagram shows the trajectory of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system. It will make its closest approach to the Sun in October.
(
NASA/JPL-Caltech
)
Astronomers have spotted a new comet, moving on a trajectory that indicates that it whizzed into our solar system from interstellar space and is just passing through.
It's only the third time scientists have discovered this kind of visitor from outside our solar system. The first two, 'Oumuamua and Comet Borisov, intrigued astronomers because of the chance to observe pieces from another star system beyond our own.
"This is like our chance to randomly sample what's going on in the rest of the galaxy," University of Oxford astrophysicist Chris Lintott recently told NPR, saying he and most other researchers really hadn't given much thought to interstellar objects until the discovery of the first one in 2017.
"I think the idea that we could see bits of other solar systems flying through our own really captivated the attention of a whole lot of people who started trying to work on these things," says Lintott.
NASA has named this latest interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, after detecting it this week with the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile.
The comet is now about 420 million miles (670 million kilometers) away. Astronomers around the world are racing to use telescopes to learn more about its size and physical properties.
It's moving fast, but poses no threat to Earth, according to NASA. The object will remain visible to ground-based telescopes through September, then will pass too close to the sun for observations to occur. But in December, it will re-emerge, allowing for more studies.
Sponsored message
And astronomers are anticipating an imminent bonanza of new discoveries of interstellar objects, thanks to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a brand new facility with unique capabilities that should allow it to spot lots of interstellar objects in the years to come.
Built with funding from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, the facility will collect a mind-boggling amount of data on the entire southern night sky during a decade-long survey slated to start later this year.
Copyright 2025 NPR
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
