On Friday, the Hubble Space Telescope captured for the first time comet 3I/ATLAS. The comet is the third object that was observed entering the solar system.
The previous two "interstellar invaders" were 1I/'Oumuamua, caught in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, watched in 2019.
Both left the solar system, though other interstellar bodies are predicted to enter the galaxy.
According to Space.com, recent research suggested that 3I/ATLAS could be more exciting as its trajectory indicates it comes from a region older than our solar system. With an estimated age of 7 billion years, that would make 3I/ATLAS the oldest comet humanity ever seen.
Hubble Space posted on X: "Hubble Space Telescope images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS are out! These were taken 5 hours ago. Plenty of cosmic rays peppering the images, but the comet's coma looks very nice and puffy. Best of luck to the researchers trying to write up papers for this."
The research added that: "3I/ATLAS is an active interstellar comet containing abundant water ice, with a dust composition more similar to D-type asteroids than to ultrared trans-Neptunian objects."
D-type asteroids are space rocks with organic molecule-rich silicates and carbon with water ice in their interiors.
Follow the latest news on Google News
