Third Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Stuns Scientists With Surprising Brightening and Blue Glow
Discovery and Interstellar Identity Comet 3I/ATLAS (officially Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS) was first spotted on July 1, 2025, by the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile newsweek.com. Right away, its orbit stood out as hyperbolic, meaning it isn’t bound to the Sun by gravity and is just passing through. This identified 3I/ATLAS as an interstellar object – a rare visitor from another star system. It is only the third such interstellar traveler ever detected, after the mysterious cigar-shaped 1I/ʻOumuamua in 2017 and the comet 2I/Borisov in 2019 space.com. The “3I” designation literally means third interstellar,