Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, we now have the sharpest image yet of the interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS, showing that it is clearly a comet, with a coma filled with dust particles and the first hints of a tail.
Of course, 3I/ATLAS is no ordinary comet. Discovered on July 1, 2025 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), 3I/ATLAS is the fastest comet ever seen. Racing in-system at 130,000 mph (209,000 kph), it is hurtling through space so fast that it will escape the sun's gravitational grasp. Its origin is somewhere beyond the solar system, in interstellar space where it has traveled for aeons, being sped up by gravitational slingshots every time it encounters a star. As a result, 3I/ATLAS is just passing through, and will gain another slingshot from our sun to send it on its way back into interstellar space, never to be seen again.
