NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured the clearest image yet of 3I-Atlas, an interstellar comet racing through our solar system from another star.
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| 3I-Atlas, the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system, was photographed by Hubble, revealing a dusty tail and clues to alien worlds. Image: NASA |
Washington, United States – August 10, 2025:
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured its most detailed image yet of 3I-Atlas, a rare interstellar comet traveling through our solar system at breakneck speed—offering astronomers a fleeting yet valuable opportunity to study material from beyond our Sun.
Discovered just weeks ago by a telescope in Chile, 3I-Atlas is only the third confirmed interstellar object to pass through our solar neighborhood, following in the path of ʻOumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. The comet is hurtling through space at 130,000 miles per hour (209,000 kph) and is expected to pass closer to Mars than to Earth, posing no threat to either planet.
Hubble’s high-resolution imagery, released Thursday by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), reveals a teardrop-shaped coma surrounding the comet’s core, along with a faint, dusty tail—a structure similar to solar system comets but formed in an entirely different stellar environment.
Initial estimates had pegged 3I-Atlas’s icy nucleus as being several miles wide. However, Hubble's observations revised this significantly, placing its size between 1,000 feet (320 meters) and 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers). When the photograph was taken, the comet was 277 million miles (446 million kilometers) from Earth.
Interstellar objects like 3I-Atlas are cosmic time capsules, providing direct physical evidence of the conditions in other star systems. Each one carries unique signatures of its origin, offering comparative insights into how planetary systems form and evolve. While such visitors are incredibly rare, their value to science is immense—they allow astronomers to study alien material without leaving our own solar system.
“The trajectory, speed, and composition of these objects help us better understand how common planetary formation is across the galaxy,” said a NASA astrophysicist following the release.
Moreover, the fact that Hubble—launched in 1990—continues to deliver such groundbreaking images reaffirms its relevance, even in the age of next-generation observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope. While Webb peers deep into time, Hubble remains a critical tool for fast-moving, near-Earth observations.
The arrival of 3I-Atlas underscores a broader trend in modern astronomy: as detection technology improves, more interstellar objects are expected to be discovered. With new tools and AI-powered tracking systems coming online, astronomers anticipate identifying dozens of such wanderers in the decades ahead.
Each offers a new piece of the puzzle—mysterious, transient messengers from solar systems light-years away.
While 3I-Atlas will continue on its cosmic trajectory, leaving our solar system forever, its brief encounter with our planetary neighborhood offers a rare and priceless window into the galactic unknown.