NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of 3I/ATLAS on July 21. (Image credit: Image: NASA, ESA, David Jewitt (UCLA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI))
Scientists working with James Webb Space Telescope are trying to learn all they can about the extremely rare comet which they discovered in July (Picture: NASA/ESA/David Jewitt/Joseph DePasquale)

Astronomers have found something mysterious when capturing the first images of interstellar comet 3I/Atlas hurtling towards the sun at 130,000 mph.

Scientists working with James Webb Space Telescope are trying to learn all they can about the extremely rare space rock which they discovered in July.

It is the third confirmed interstellar comet ever recorded and is due to hurtle past our sun in October.

Using near-infrared technology, the comet’s physical properties can be deciphered based on the light it emits.

It is estimated the comet is around 3.5 miles wide, making it one of the largest interstellar objects ever seen.

They also found it is whizzing along at 130,000 mph in an unusually flat and straight line, giving it the highest velocity recorded of an interstellar object.

NASA?s James Webb Space Telescope observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS Aug. 6, with its Near-Infrared Spectrograph instrument. The research team has been analyzing insights from Webb?s data, and a preprint is available online. Webb is one of NASA?s space telescopes observing this comet, together providing more information about its size, physical properties, and chemical makeup. For example, NASA?s Hubble Space Telescope and the recently launched SPHEREx mission have also observed the comet. While the comet poses no threat to Earth, NASA?s space telescopes help support the agency?s ongoing mission to find, track, and better understand solar system objects. Alise Fisher NASA Headquarters, Washington 202-358-2546 alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Using near-infrared technology, the comet’s physical properties can be deciphered based on the light it emits (Picture: NASA/James Webb Space Telescope)

ESO???s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has obtained new images of 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object discovered last week. Identified as a comet, 3I/ATLAS is only the third visitor from outside the Solar System ever found, after 1I/??Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov. Its highly eccentric hyperbolic orbit, unlike that of objects in the Solar System, gave away its interstellar origin.?? In this image, several VLT observations have been overlaid, showing the comet as a series of dots that move towards the right of the image over the course of about 13 minutes on the night of 3 July 2025. The data were obtained with the FORS2 instrument, and are available in the ESO archive.?? Links?? Timelapse of the observations Deep stacked image of all observations
New images of 3I/Atlas, an interstellar object discovered last week (Picture: ESO/O. Hainaut)

This suggests the comet has been on the move for billions of years, being slingshotted by gravitational pull

One study has also suggested it is around 3 billion years older than our 4.6 billion-year-old solar system.

The imaging has revealed a carbon dioxide atmosphere – or coma – has developed around it.

This could be due to where the comet was formed near the CO2 ice line of the swirling gas from which it was formed.

Artist???s impression shows the first interstellar object discovered in the Solar System, `Oumuamua. Space scientists say they are preparing a comet interceptor spaceship as the third interstellar object ever detected was spotted this week. A mysterious object the size of Manhattan was spotted by astronomers hurtling through our Solar System at extraordinary speed. The object, now officially designated 3I/ATLAS (previously known as A11pl3Z), is believed to have come from a distant star system and is travelling at over 60 kilometres per second. Although the new object is considered to pose no threat to Earth, the European Space Agency (ESA) has announced it is continuing work on a mission to meet future visiting entities. Addressing the need to investigate visitors to our Solar System, the space agency said on Thursday (3 July):
Artist’s impression of 3I/Atlas (Picture: ESA/Hubble/NASA/ESO/M.Kornmesser)

The researchers wrote: ‘Our observations are compatible with an intrinsically CO2-rich nucleus, which may indicate that 3I/Atlas contains ices exposed to higher levels of radiation than Solar System comets, or that it formed close to the CO2 ice line in its parent protoplanetary disk.’

It is unclear where the comet came from.

David Jewett, a scientist at the Hubble observations, said: ‘It’s like glimpsing a rifle bullet for a thousandth of a second.

‘You can’t project that back with any accuracy to figure out where it started on its path.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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