{"id":206869,"date":"2025-09-07T05:39:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T05:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/206869\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T05:39:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T05:39:12","slug":"interstellar-comet-grows-tail-as-it-hurtles-toward-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/206869\/","title":{"rendered":"Interstellar Comet Grows Tail As It Hurtles Toward Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A recently discovered comet is becoming more active as it flies through our solar system toward the sun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">That\u2019s according to experts at the <a href=\"https:\/\/noirlab.edu\/public\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:National Science Foundation&#039;s NoirLab;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">National Science Foundation&#8217;s NoirLab<\/a>, who have been monitoring the comet with the <a href=\"https:\/\/noirlab.edu\/public\/programs\/gemini-observatory\/gemini-south\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Gemini South telescope;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Gemini South telescope<\/a> in Chile.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>(MORE: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/james-webb-telescope-captures-space-172000504.html\" rel=\"noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:James Webb Telescope Captures Space Butterfly;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>James Webb Telescope Captures Space Butterfly<\/strong><\/a><strong>)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Images released this week show a tail of dust and gas following the comet\u2019s trajectory that has only grown larger and more pronounced since it was last seen in August.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The comet is known as 3I-Atlas and is currently 238 million miles from Earth. According to NASA, the comet is expected to pass the sun in October and continue hurtling toward Earth until December. The closest it will get to Earth on the current trajectory is 167 million miles away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The comet is believed to be only the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/interstellar-object-a11pl3z-asteroid-comet-24319a5369840d4e200ffca7a998f876\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:third interstellar object;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">third interstellar object<\/a> that scientists have identified to have entered our solar system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>(MORE: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/weather.com\/science\/space\/video\/rare-red-aurora-spotted-from-iss-in-space\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Rare, Red Aurora Puts On A Stunning Show In Space;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"><strong>Rare, Red Aurora Puts On A Stunning Show In Space<\/strong><\/a><strong>)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recently discovered comet is becoming more active as it flies through our solar system toward the sun.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":206870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[53936,159,161,783,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-206869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-national-science-foundation","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-solar-system","11":"tag-space","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115161410341576532","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}