{"id":54883,"date":"2026-06-24T01:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T19:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=54883"},"modified":"2026-06-24T16:47:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T11:17:29","slug":"3i-atlas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/3i-atlas\/","title":{"rendered":"Interstellar Comet 3I\/ATLAS"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Interstellar Comet 3I\/ATLAS Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists studying the comet 3I\/ATLAS have determined that this interstellar visitor is remarkably ancient \u2013 formed an estimated 10 to 12 billion years ago in a primordial planetary system.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Interstellar Comet 3I\/ATLAS<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the <\/span><b>third known interstellar object<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from outside our solar system after <\/span><b>1I\/\u02bbOumuamua(2017)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>2I\/Borisov (2019).<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was first observed by a <\/span><b>NASA-supported telescope in Rio Hurtado<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Chile, which is part of the <\/span><b>ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will exit the solar system permanently after a brief interaction with the Sun.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Physical Characteristics of Interstellar\u00a0 Comet 3I\/ATLAS<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is confirmed to be <\/span><b>an active comet,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with a visible coma, a <\/span><b>cloud of ice particles<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and dust surrounding the nucleus.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Trajectory:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It has <\/span><b>hyperbolic orbit<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and travels at 57\u201368 km\/s speed relative to the Sun.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As it nears the Sun, it is expected to develop a tail, a characteristic cemetery feature formed by solar heating.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Photometric analysis shows a reddish hue suggests the surface may be rich in complex organic compounds or water ice.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>What are Interstellar Objects?<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are <\/span><b>celestial bodies that originate outside the <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/solar-system\/\" target=\"_blank\">solar system<\/a><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and travel through it. These objects are <\/span><b>not gravitationally bound to a star.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They can come from other solar systems and be thrown into interstellar space (the area between the stars) <\/span><b>due to collisions or be slingshotted by a planet\u2019s or star\u2019s gravity.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The trajectory of these objects is <\/span><b>basically open-ended hyperbolic orbit<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, where <\/span><b>there is a perihelion point <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(closest to the Sun) but <\/span><b>no aphelion.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatoday.in\/science\/story\/comet-3i-atlas-older-than-the-sun-webb-reveals-10-billion-year-old-interstellar-visitor-2932363-2026-06-23\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IT<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Interstellar Comet 3I\/ATLAS is the third known interstellar object from outside our solar system after 1I\/\u02bbOumuamua(2017) and 2I\/Borisov (2019). Read more about Interstellar Comet 3I\/ATLAS, Distance, Characteristics, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":72082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8294,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-54883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-interstellar-comet-3i-atlas","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54883"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109664,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54883\/revisions\/109664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}