Current Affairs - Technology - Discussion

3I/ATLAS is the third confirmed interstellar object, following 1I/ʻOumuamua (2017) and 2I/Borisov (2019). Detected by the NASA-funded ATLAS telescope in Chile, it travels on a hyperbolic trajectory at speeds between 57 and 68 km/s, confirming its origin from outside the Solar System. Unlike its predecessors, 3I/ATLAS is likely from the Milky Way’s thick disk, a region populated by ancient stars, suggesting it could be over 7 billion years old—predating the Solar System. With spectral evidence of water ice and complex organics, it offers a unique opportunity to study primordial material, planetary formation processes, and possibly the origins of life.