An object hurtling through space at over 200,000 km per hour — and possibly from beyond our solar system — has been detected by astronomers. Named A11pl3Z, the mysterious body measures between 10 and 20 kilometers in diameter but, fortunately, poses no risk of colliding with Earth.
According to the European Space Agency (ESA), this would be the third known interstellar visitor ever spotted passing through our system. “It will fly deep into the solar system, passing just within Mars’ orbit,” explained Richard Moissl, head of planetary defense at the ESA, in an interview with AFP.
A cosmic traveler from deep space
The object is racing through space at an astonishing 60 kilometers per second — that’s over 200,000 km per hour. Its trajectory clearly shows that it isn’t orbiting the Sun but rather came from interstellar space — and will soon return there.
An official confirmation from the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center is still pending, though more than a hundred observations have already been logged by astronomers around the world.
Estimated between 10 and 20 kilometers wide
A11pl3Z was detected on Tuesday and, according to Moissl, is estimated to span 10 to 20 kilometers — though possibly smaller. “It will continue to brighten as it approaches the Sun through late October and should remain visible into next year,” he said.
If its interstellar origin is confirmed, A11pl3Z would join a very exclusive club: just two other known visitors have ever been observed crossing into our solar neighborhood. The first, Oumuamua, was spotted in 2017, and the second, 2I/Borisov, in 2019.
Faster than its predecessors
“This object seems to be moving much faster than the two previously discovered extrasolar objects,” said Mark Norris, an astronomer at the University of Central Lancashire in the U.K.
According to current models, there could be as many as 10,000 interstellar objects drifting through the universe — invisible wanderers passing silently among the planets of our solar system at any given time.
