Imagine a comet coming from the depths of another star system, causing a lot of talk about aliens coming to Earth. Then Vladimir Putin winks and says it's Russia's secret weapon. Putin's crazy joke about the '3I/ATLAS Shock' has been in the news a lot, and people all over the world are talking about the interstellar object that was first seen on July 1, 2025. Conspiracy theorists are all over this interstellar visitor, 3I/ATLAS, but astronomers are still trying to figure it out. It combines real science with cosmic mystery.
In July 2025, the ATLAS survey found 3I/ATLAS close to Jupiter. It is the third confirmed object from outside our solar system to come into our solar system, after 'Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. It came from the constellation Sagittarius and was between 100 and 200 meters wide, which is a little bigger than 'Oumuamua.
