The universe has a way of making us remember how little we really know about the area outside of our solar system. For the third time in recorded history, a visitor from the dark depths of interstellar space has sped past our sun, giving us a brief look at the chemistry of a star system far away.
This icy traveler, known as 3I/ATLAS, is now leaving in style, but not before giving scientists a few parting gifts and leaving fans with a lot of questions. The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Chile first saw the object on July 1, 2025. It is very old, possibly up to 14 billion years old, which makes it very special. It may even be older than our own sun.
