tech
Interstellar comet may be oldest object seen in our solar system, scientists say
Observations suggest comet spent billions of years on ‘vast unimaginable trajectories’ around our galaxy
TL;DR
- Comet 3I/Atlas is the third interstellar object observed and may be up to 12 billion years old, significantly older than our solar system (4.5 billion years old).
- Its elemental composition, particularly the high ratio of deuterium, is unlike any object found within our solar system.
- The comet's composition suggests it formed in a very cold environment, possibly close to where new stars were being born.
- The discovery was made using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope and the Alma observatory.
- Theories about the comet being an alien spacecraft have been dismissed by NASA and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute.
- Astronomers anticipate discovering more interstellar objects with the advent of new observatories like the Vera C Rubin observatory.