A model of comet 3I/ATLAS, the third known object from outside our solar system to visit us.
ATLAS/University of Hawaii/NASA
hide caption
toggle caption
ATLAS/University of Hawaii/NASA
Comet 3I/ATLAS takes a long vacation trip this year. He comes from a completely different solar system.
It is the third recorded interstellar object passing through our solar system. Astronomer John Tonry says that, like the first interstellar comet in 2017, 3I/ATLAS has people wondering if it comes from extraterrestrial technology.
Tonry was part of a team that created the NASA-funded Asteroid Earth Impact Last Warning System. And while he’s willing to bet that this comet isn’t a holiday gift from aliens, he says so. do offering astronomers the rare opportunity to study the planets around stars beyond our sun.
“It’s the only way we’re going to get materials from another solar system, I mean, certainly within our lifetime.”
Interested in more space science? Send us your question to shortwaves@npr.org.
Listen to every episode of Short Wave without a sponsor and support our work at NPR by subscribing to Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
Listen to Short Wave on Spotify And Apple Podcasts.
This episode was produced by Rachel Carlson. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones fact-checked. The sound engineer was Kwesi Lee.
