This is the most clear image ever made of the interstellar comet 3i/Atlas: immortalized while it is crossing our solar system at 209,000 km/h.

A group of astronomers captured the most clear image ever made of the interstellar comet 3i/Atlas, thanks to the eye of the NASA Hubble Space Telescope. This comet, an unexpected guest, coming from another stellar system, is going through our Solar System at a speed of 209,000 kilometers per hour – the highest ever recorded for an object of this type.

Although 3i/Atlas does not represent any threat to the earth, its passage offers an unrepeatable opportunity for scientists. The entire fleet of NASA spatial telescopes is at work to study it: the goal is to deepen the knowledge of these rare cosmic travelers and, at the same time, improve the ability to detect and monitor objects close to our planet.

An image that is worth billions of years. The image captured by Hubble not only reveals an unprecedented level of detail, but also allows you to more precision the size of the nucleus of the comet: its maximum diameter is about 5.6 kilometers, even if it could be much smaller – up to 320 meters, according to the researchers.

Unfortunately, not even Hubble is able to directly observe the solid and frozen heart of the comet, hidden by his bright hair. The telescope also identified a dust plume expelled from the sun heated by the sun, as well as a thin powder tail that moves away from the nucleus. The data show a rate of loss of material completely similar to that of the comets of our Solar System at distances of about 480 million kilometers from the sun, suggesting that the behavior of 3i/Atlas, however alien in the origin, is not so different from that of the solar comets.

A galactic bullet. The origin of 3i/Atlas remains wrapped in mystery. “Nobody knows where the comet comes from,” said David Jewitt, of the University of California in Los Angeles, head of the Hubble observation group. “It is like glimpse a rifle bullet for a thousandth of a second: impossible to trace its exact path.”

According to scientists, however, the comet wanders in the interstellar space for billions of years, perhaps seven or more, accelerated over time by the gravitational field of stars and nebulae encountered along the street. The more time he spends in deep space, the greater his speed becomes.

The interstellar comets. 3i/Atlas is only the third interstellar object never identified in our Solar System, after ‘Oumuamua in 2017 and 2i/Borisov in 2019.

Its discovery, which took place on 1 July 2025 at a distance of about 420 million miles from the sun, is thanks to the Atlas (Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System) system, developed by the University of Hawaii and financed by NASA.

Atlas is designed to provide early alert in case of potential impact of asteroids. “Our ability to observe the sky has become so powerful that we have overcome a threshold: we are ready to discover more and more wandering relics of the galaxy,” said Jewitt.

The hunt continues. In addition to Hubble, other spatial observers are also contributing to the study mission of the comet, including the James Webb Space Telescope, the Tess (Transitting Exoplanet Survey satellite), the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii, a NASA partner.

The goal is to build an increasingly detailed profile of 3i/Atlas: from its chemical composition to its flight dynamics. According to the forecasts, the comet will remain visible to terrestrial telescopes until September 2025, before temporarily disappearing behind the sun. His return is expected in early December, perhaps offering a new observation window. In the meantime, the results of the observations made by Hubble will soon be published on The Astrophysical Journal Letters and are already previewed on the platform Astro-.