3I/ATLAS May Be Oldest Comet Ever Seen, Astronomers Say

Jul 11, 2025 - 13:15
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3I/ATLAS May Be Oldest Comet Ever Seen, Astronomers Say
Top view of the Milky Way showing the estimated orbits of both our Sun and 3I/ATLAS. The comet is shown in red dashed lines, and the Sun is shown in yellow dotted lines. The large extent of the comet’s orbit into the outer thick disk is clear, while the Sun stays nearer the core of the Galaxy. Image credit: M. Hopkins / Ōtautahi-Oxford Team / ESA / Gaia / DPAC / Stefan Payne-Wardenaar / CC-BY-SA 4.0.

3I/ATLAS -- the second interstellar comet ever spotted in our cosmic neighborhood -- may predate our Solar System by more than 3 billion years, according to a research team led by University of Oxford astronomer Matthew Hopkins.

The post 3I/ATLAS May Be Oldest Comet Ever Seen, Astronomers Say appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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