3I/ATLAS

Comets

3I/ATLAS, also designated C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), is an interstellar comet discovered on 1 July 2025 by an ATLAS station. It travels past the Sun on an unbound hyperbolic trajectory and passed Earth at 1.8 AU without posing a threat. The active comet has an icy nucleus and a coma of gas and dust. Observations indicate a nucleus under 1 km in diameter and material unusually rich in carbon dioxide.

Discovery: Discovered on 1 July 2025 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) station.
Classification: Third confirmed interstellar object passing through the Solar System.
Nucleus size: Less than 1 km in diameter.

Sources and credits

Article: 3I/ATLAS (English Wikipedia)
Wikidata: Q135193382
Text: Card text is adapted from the English Wikipedia article by an automated summary. Wikipedia content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for its contributors. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Article history and contributors
Illustration: By International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/B. Bolin Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab). CC BY 4.0 · File page on Wikimedia Commons
International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/B. Bolin Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab), https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2532/
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