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LiveScience
LiveScience
Patrick Pester

'Interstellar messenger' 3I/ATLAS could be nearly as old as the universe itself, James Webb telescope observations reveal

3I Atlas Earth Solar System Milky way Live Science
A photo of 3I/ATLAS with a green coma and a long tail, as well as a second shorter tail. A spiral galaxy is also visible in the top left of the image.

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is up to 12 billion years old and unlike anything found in our solar system, new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations suggest.

Comet 3I/ATLAS became a celestial celebrity last year after the interstellar visitor was discovered hurtling through our cosmic neighborhood. Not long after, online speculation suggested that the space rock could be an alien spacecraft. However, most astronomers are confident that 3I/ATLAS is a comet from an unknown star system.

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