{"id":721668,"date":"2026-06-23T18:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/721668\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T18:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:33:12","slug":"strange-interstellar-comet-speculated-to-be-alien-spacecraft-is-older-than-solar-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/721668\/","title":{"rendered":"Strange interstellar comet speculated to be alien spacecraft is older than Solar System"},"content":{"rendered":"

A strange interstellar comet<\/a> discovered last year and speculated by a prominent astronomer to be an alien spacecraft<\/a> could be older than our Solar System<\/a>, according to a new study.<\/p>\n

The comet<\/a>, first spotted in July 2025 and named 3I\/ATLAS<\/a>, was only the third interstellar object to visit our Solar System<\/a> after 1I\/’Oumuamua<\/a> and 2I\/Borisov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was initially thought to have formed between three and 10 billion years ago<\/a>, but researchers have now found that it could be even older, originating from an ancient planetary system nearly 12 billion years ago.<\/p>\n

The precise age, origin and path of 3I\/ATLAS have remained uncertain since its discovery in 2025.<\/p>\n

Its rare and unknown nature led to initial speculation that it could be a spacecraft sent by an alien civilisation.<\/p>\n

This month, however, the SETI Institute announced it had found no signs of otherworldly technology on 3I\/Atlas after extensive radio scans.<\/p>\n

A new analysis of different versions of chemical elements detected on its surface, though, offered clues about the physical and chemical conditions of where 3I\/ATLAS formed.<\/p>\n

\"Interstellar<\/p>\n

Interstellar object 3I\/ATLAS imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope (Nasa)<\/p>\n

Observations made using Nasa\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope suggested the object had a composition unlike anything else in the Solar System.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere we report isotopic measurements of the interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS, which reveal an elemental composition unlike any Solar System body,\u201d researchers said in the latest study published in the journal Nature.<\/p>\n

They estimated the quantities of different forms of hydrogen and carbon on the space rock, providing insights into the environment in which it formed and helping locate its origin.<\/p>\n

Researchers found that the comet had 10 times as much deuterium, a form of hydrogen, than any known comet.<\/p>\n

They also discovered that its carbon ratios exceeded typical values found in the Solar System as well as nearby interstellar clouds and planet-forming cosmic disks.<\/p>\n

This indicated that 3I\/ATLAS formed in a cold environment of around minus 243C. \u201cSuch extreme isotopic signatures indicate formation at temperatures about 30 Kelvin in a relatively metal-poor environment,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

Based on its carbon composition, researchers estimated the rock formed about 12 billion years ago following a period of intense, early star formation in its host environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe carbon isotopic composition implies that 3I\/ATLAS may have accreted as long ago as 12 billion years, following a period of intense, early star formation,\u201d they noted.<\/p>\n

\u201c3I\/ATLAS thus represents a preserved fragment of an ancient planetary system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A strange interstellar comet discovered last year and speculated by a prominent astronomer to be an alien spacecraft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[160763,310582,783,100931,7986,79,780],"class_list":["post-721668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-alien-spacecraft","tag-interstellar-clouds","tag-interstellar-object","tag-planetary-system","tag-researchers","tag-science","tag-solar-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}