Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS captured speeding through the solar system by Jupiter-bound spacecraft
Jackie Flynn Mogensen
In late 2025 a mysterious comet flew between the orbits of Earth and Mars and reached a speed of more than 150,000 miles per hour during its closest approach to the sun. The rare interstellar guest to our solar system captured astronomers’ attention, and many trained their observations onto it in a bid to understand what exactly it is, why it is here and where it might be going.
Every new piece of data offers a glimpse at the space beyond our solar system. And as the comet, called 3I/ATLAS,...