As we end 2025, it's time to think about the most amazing 'blind date' in history: meeting the interstellar interloper 3I/ATLAS. Many people might think that this visitor is a one-of-a-kind cosmic oddity, but Harvard astrophysicist Professor Avi Loeb says that if this object is a natural comet, we are only seeing a small part of a huge, invisible crowd. 3I/ATLAS isn't alone; it could be one of 100 quadrillion similar objects floating around in our own Milky Way galaxy.
The ATLAS survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, found the interstellar visitor on July 1, 2025. It made its presence known by moving so quickly that it will never be able to escape the sun's gravity. When it was first seen, it was moving at about 137,000 miles per hour. As it went around the sun, it sped up to 153,000 miles per hour.
