{"id":754385,"date":"2026-06-22T21:13:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/754385\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T21:13:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:13:33","slug":"interstellar-comet-may-be-oldest-object-seen-in-our-solar-system-scientists-say-comets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/754385\/","title":{"rendered":"Interstellar comet may be oldest object seen in our solar system, scientists say | Comets"},"content":{"rendered":"

An interstellar comet that blazed past the sun last year could be nearly three times older than our solar system and is unlike anything ever before seen in our cosmic back yard, astronomers said on Monday.<\/p>\n

The comet 3I\/Atlas is just the third visitor from beyond our solar system that humanity has ever observed, its unusual brightness offering scientists an unprecedented opportunity to study something that came from elsewhere in the galaxy.<\/p>\n

After being spotted in July last year, the space rock prompted excitement online, with one prominent Harvard researcher speculating it could be an alien spacecraft: a theory that Nasa shot down<\/a>. Now, observations made by the world\u2019s most powerful telescopes are revealing more about the unique comet.<\/p>\n

According to a study published in the journal Nature, 3I\/Atlas could be up to 12bn years old. Our solar system is believed to have formed about 4.5bn years ago.<\/p>\n

The lead study author, Martin Cordiner of Nasa\u2019s Goddard Space<\/a> Flight Center, told Agence France-Presse that \u201cmaybe it\u2019s the oldest object to have been observed in our solar system\u201d. However, there could be \u201cedge-case scenarios\u201d that offer other explanations for the comet\u2019s unusual chemical composition, he added.<\/p>\n

The new research is based on the comet\u2019s ratio of chemical elements called isotopes detected by the James Webb space telescope<\/a> and the Alma observatory in Chile. These measurements \u201creveal an elemental composition unlike any solar system body\u201d, the study said.<\/p>\n

Compared with comets in our solar system, 3I\/Atlas has 10 times more deuterium, a type of hydrogen commonly seen in heavy water, according to the study. \u201cThat high abundance of heavy water can only really happen, according to our understanding of astrochemistry, in a very cold environment,\u201d Cordiner explained.<\/p>\n

This means the comet is also probably among the coldest objects ever seen in our solar system, the isotopic evidence suggesting it formed in an environment that was -243C (-405.4F).<\/p>\n

Exactly where this comet came from within the Milky Way remains a mystery, but these interstellar objects are thought to form in a similar way to the comets in our solar system \u2013 being flung out during the violent formation of a new planet. Untethered to any star, 3I\/Atlas likely spent billions of years on \u201cvast unimaginable trajectories around our galaxy\u201d, Cordiner said.<\/p>\n

The scientists also detected a strange lack of chemical enrichment on the comet, which suggests it formed relatively close to stars being born. It could even be a \u201crelic\u201d from an era called \u201ccosmic noon\u201d when many stars were forming approximately 10bn years ago, Cordiner said.<\/p>\n

The previous interstellar objects \u2013 1I\/\u2019Oumuamua, which was spotted in 2017, followed by 2I\/Borisov in 2019 \u2013 were not bright enough to gather isotopic evidence. The Harvard professor Avi Loeb, who had previously sparked controversy by suggesting \u2019Oumuamua could be an alien spacecraft, made similar suggestions about 3I\/Atlas.<\/p>\n

However, Nasa<\/a> dismissed this possibility. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (Seti) said last month it had found \u201cno evidence of extraterrestrial technology\u201d on the comet.<\/p>\n

The astronomer Peter Vere\u0161, who was involved in identifying the comet at the International Astronomical Union\u2019s Minor Planet Center, called the research \u201cexciting\u201d. \u201cThe comet is now leaving the solar system and will never return, so future observations will become increasingly difficult,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n

However, astronomers expect to spot many more interstellar objects in the coming years, particularly thanks to the new Vera C Rubin observatory in Chile. \u201cThis is just the beginning of an exciting new field, we\u2019ve got a lot more to learn about these things \u2013 and what they can tell us about our galaxy,\u201d said Cordiner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An interstellar comet that blazed past the sun last year could be nearly three times older than our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,66,306],"class_list":["post-754385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}