Mystery Interstellar object could be the oldest known comet

According to scientists, a mystery -interstunar object that was spotted by astronomers last week could be the oldest comet ever.

The name 3i/Atlas, it can be three billion years older than our own solar system, suggests the Oxford University team.

It is only the third time that we have detected an object that came from outside our solar system.

The provisional findings were presented on Friday during the national meeting of the British Royal Astronomical Society in Durham.

“We are all very enthusiastic about 3i/Atlas,” the astronomer from the University of Oxford Matthew Hopkins told BBC News.

“I’m just finished with my doctorate where I spent four years predicting the discovery of [more] Interstellar objects, and then for the first time in my studies we found one, “he said.

Based on the speed of the object, Mr Hopkins says that it can be more than seven billion years old, and it is perhaps the most remarkable interstellar visitor.

3I/Atlas was first seen on July 1, 2025 by the Atlas Survey Telescope in Chile, when it was around 670 million km from the sun.

It is currently only visible with very large telescopes, and it is about the distance from Jupiter of the Earth.

Since then, astronomers have been racing around the world to identify his path and discover more details about it.

Mr Hopkins believes that it originated in the “thick disk” of the Melkweg. This is a group of old stars that spin around and below the area where the sun and most stars are located.

The team believes that because 3i/Atlas is probably formed around an old star, it consists of a lot of water ice.

That means that if it approaches the sun later this year, the energy of the sun will heat the surface of the object, leading to vapor and dust.

That can create a glowing tail.

The researchers made their findings with the help of a model developed by Mr Hopkins.

“This is an object from a part of the Melkweg that we have never seen before,” says Prof. Chris Lintott, co-author of the study.

“We think there is a two -thirds chance that this comet is older than the solar system, and that it has since been driven by interstellar space.”

Interstellar objects form around other stars, at the start of the life of those stars, Mr Hopkins explains.

“This connection back to their elder stars means that we can look at the stellar population of the Milky Way,” he adds.

Later this year 3i/Atlas of the earth must be visible with the help of amateur telescopes.

Before 3i/Atlas strived, only two others were seen. One was called 1i/’Oumuamua, found in 2017 and another called 2i/Borisov, discovered in 2019.

Astronomers worldwide are currently preparing to use a new, very powerful telescope in Chile, called the Vera C Rubin.

When it starts to investigate the Southern Night Sky completely later this year, scientists expect it to discover between five and 50 new interstellar objects.