A recently discovered extraterrestrial "visitor" is hurtling toward the inner solar system at 130,000 miles per hour and has quickly captured the attention of astronomers and space enthusiasts around the world, including here at the University of Arizona.
A recently discovered extraterrestrial "visitor" is hurtling toward the inner solar system at 130,000 miles per hour and has quickly captured the attention of astronomers and space enthusiasts around the world, including here at the University of Arizona.
Dubbed 3I/ATLAS, it is only the third object known to have crossed into the solar system from interstellar space. Carson Fuls is director of the Catalina Sky Survey, a NASA-funded project at the university's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. University of Arizona News spoke with Fuls to learn more about the mysterious object traversing our solar system on its journey through interstellar space.
What is special about interstellar objects such as 3I/ATLAS visiting our solar system?
Zoom out and consider that our sun, every planet, asteroid, comet, even every shooting star that you've ever seen, was formed all together as part of our solar system. This object came from an entirely different solar system. We have no idea which one, or how long this thing has been traveling through the void, but it is an actual piece of another star system.
Read More: University of Arizona
Photo Credit: Hans via Pixabay
