From Oumuamua to 3I/ATLAS: The Interstellar Visitors We Can’t Ignore
3I/ATLAS: The Interstellar Visitor That’s Shaking Science and Imagination 🚀 A Cosmic Visitor With No RSVP Image Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI) On July 1, 2025 the ATLAS telescope in Chile spotted a visitor hurtling through our solar system at an almost ridiculous speed of 130,000 miles per hour . Named 3I/ATLAS , it’s the third interstellar object known to humankind, following the enigmatic Oumuamua in 2017 and the more conventionally comet like Borisov in 2019. If you thought the solar system was predictable and serene, 3I/ATLAS just dropped by like the rock star of cosmic visitors, forcing astronomers to scramble telescopes and theorists to scramble tweets. 🧪 What Makes 3I/ATLAS Stand Out? I nitially classified as a comet due to its coma and dust tail , 3I/ATLAS exhibits traits that make scientists say: “Okay… that’s unusual.” Odd Chemistry: It releases water but almost no cya...