Astronomers may have just uncovered clues to the age and origin of comet 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object hurtling toward the center of our solar system at breakneck speed. Atlas is distinguished from other comets by its unusually high levels of water and carbon dioxide, and is currently passing through our solar system.
A new study that models the comet’s path through the Milky Way over the past 4 million years suggests that the interstellar visitor came from a very distant region, somewhere on the turbulent boundary where the galaxy’s oldest and youngest stars meet.
If this hypothesis is correct, 3I/ATLAS could be a relic from the early days of the Milky Way; an object that is 7 or 8 billion years old, much older than the sun.
The nucleus of Comet Atlas is estimated to be between 440 meters and 5.6 kilometers across, and its speed is estimated to be around 210 kilometers per hour, making it the fastest object ever to enter the solar system from outside. Observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and other space observatories have provided new information about its size and behavior.