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A Rare Interstellar Object Is Blazing Through Our Solar System, Marking Only the Third Cosmic Visitor on Record

RÍO HURTADO, CHILE, JUL 7 – The European Space Agency advances the Comet Interceptor mission after detecting 3I/ATLAS, a 10-20 km wide interstellar object traveling over 60 km/s through the Solar System.

  • Last week, the ATLAS telescope in Chile detected 3I/ATLAS, an estimated 10–20 km wide interstellar object traveling over 60 km/s.
  • The ESA’s Comet Interceptor mission was adopted in June 2022, passed its Critical Design Review in December 2024, and is scheduled for a 2029 launch to study interstellar visitors like 3I/ATLAS.
  • Data confirm 3I/ATLAS is about 20 km wide, larger than predecessors, traveling over 60 km/s, confirming its interstellar origin.
  • ESA’s astronomers track 3I/ATLAS within Jupiter’s orbit, offering a rare opportunity to study a large, non-threatening interstellar object.
  • Beyond discovery, ESA’s Comet Interceptor aims to study interstellar objects, offering insights into planet formation and the chemical makeup of distant solar systems.
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Only two visitors from the depths of space had discovered astronomers in the solar system, comet 3I/Atlas is number three – and in many ways different.

·Munich, Germany
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Astronomers have confirmed the discovery of a new interstellar comet - from another stellar system than ours. It was detected on 1 July 2025 by the ATLAS telescope network in Chile and is only the third of its kind.

·Paris, France
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Lean Left

Last Friday, astronomers boasted a Czech photograph, i.e. a domestically created image, of an interstellar object with the provisional designation A11pl3Z. The resulting photo was taken on the night of July 2-3 at the observatory of the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Ondřejov. We also now know that the object in question is a comet.

Lean Left

Astronomy: For the third time, astronomers have observed a sail rock from interstellar space in the solar system. Astronomers have…

·Netherlands
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Portafolio.co broke the news in on Sunday, July 6, 2025.
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