Astronomers spot an interstellar object zipping through our solar system kraken тор
A newly discovered object speeding through our solar system is sparking excitement among astronomers because it’s not from around here. Believed to be a comet, the object is only the third celestial body from beyond our solar system ever to be observed in our corner of the universe.
This interstellar visitor, now officially named 3I/ATLAS, became known when the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) telescope in Chile reported spotting it on Tuesday. Since then, astronomers reviewing archival observations from multiple telescopes have tracked the object’s movements as far back as June 14 and found that the comet arrived from the direction of the Sagittarius constellation.
The comet’s speed and path through the solar system are two strong indicators that it originated beyond our solar system, said Gianluca Masi, astronomer and astrophysicist at the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Italy and founder and scientific director of the Virtual Telescope Project. Masi has been making observations of the comet and will stream a live view of the object on the Virtual Telescope Project’s website beginning at 6 p.m. ET Thursday.
The comet is moving at nearly 37 miles per second (60 kilometers per second) — or 133,200 miles per hour (about 214,364 kilometers per hour) — too fast to be a “local” object in our solar system, said Teddy Kareta, an assistant professor at Villanova University near Philadelphia.