Imagine a mysterious cosmic traveller, streaking through the dark, defying gravity, and causing an international uproar. Now, envision Earth's global planetary defence systems abruptly swinging into action, not because of an impending collision, but for a massive, high-stakes drill focused entirely on this one enigma.
That's precisely what is happening with the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS. The object, officially designated the third known interstellar object to ever visit our Solar System, was first spotted on 1 July 2025 by the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile.
