A Cosmic Visitor Named 3I/ATLAS

A strange object is zooming through our solar system, and scientists now know it's from another star system. This object, initially called A11pl3Z, has been officially named 3I/ATLAS. It's moving super fast, around 152, 000 mph, and it's not slowing down. Scientists think it's a comet, not an asteroid, because it has a bright cloud of gas and ice around it, known as a coma, and what looks like a tail. 3I/ATLAS was first spotted by telescopes in Hawaii, Chile, and South Africa. It's currently 4. 5 times farther from the sun than Earth is. It will get closest to the sun on October 30, coming within 1. 4 times the Earth-sun distance. After that, it will swing by Mars and then head back out of our solar system. Don't worry, it won't come close to Earth, staying at least 1. 6 times the Earth-sun distance away. This is only the third interstellar object ever seen in our solar system. The other two were 'Oumuamua in 2017 and Comet 2I/Borisov in 2019. Scientists think there are probably many more of these visitors, but they're hard to spot. Right now, 3I/ATLAS is too faint to see with regular telescopes, but it might get brighter soon. You can watch it online through a livestream from the Virtual Telescope Project. Scientists around the world are studying 3I/ATLAS. They'll keep watching it until September when it gets too close to the sun's light, and then again from December when it comes back into view. They're still not sure how big or what shape it is, but they think it could be up to 12 miles across.