A rare cosmic traveler from beyond our solar system is currently speeding through our cosmic neighborhood. Named 3I/ATLAS (also known as C/2025 N1), this comet is only the third confirmed interstellar object ever detected, following ‘Oumuamua in 2017 and Comet 2I/Borisov in 2019. The NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey telescope in Chile first spotted this visitor on July 1, 2025. Follow-up observations by telescopes worldwide quickly confirmed its unusual path, which clearly shows it didn’t originate in our solar system. “This thing is traveling pretty fast,” said Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near Earth Object … Continue reading Massive Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Racing Through Solar System at 130,000 MPH