Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is speeding through our solar system

PARABNORMAL NEWS — Astronomers have identified what may be only the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system.

3I/ATLAS, previously known as “A11pl3Z”, was first spotted by telescope this past June.

The newly discovered space traveler is turning heads across the astronomical world. It’s said to be up to 15 miles wide and is blazing toward the Sun at over 130,000 miles per hour.

Its high speed and unusual trajectory suggest it wasn’t formed around our Sun. Instead, it appears to have entered the solar system, looped around the Sun, and is now heading back into interstellar space. 3I/ATLAS poses no threat to Earth.

Signs of a faint tail suggest it’s likely a comet, similar to the only other confirmed interstellar visitors: Oumuamua and Borisov. But scientists are still narrowing down the source.

Researchers believe 3I/ATLAS originated from a little-known part of our galaxy called the thick disk, which is home to some of the Milky Way’s oldest stars. That would make it around three billion years older than the solar system and potentially the oldest comet ever observed from Earth.

A team from the University of Oxford used a new computer model that helps predict where interstellar objects come from. They found there’s a two-thirds chance this comet is older than our entire solar system and may have been wandering through interstellar space for billions of years.

Photo: ATLAS/University of Hawaii/NASA