Week 28, 2025: Newly-discovered Comet is the Third Interstellar Object Ever Known!
Comet 3I/ATLAS as seen from the Deep Random Survey in Rio Hurtado, Chile on 2 July 2025
Last week on 1 July 2025, the Asteroid Terrestrial Last-Alert System (ATLAS) survey in Chile discovered a new interstellar comet (A11pl3Z) passing through the Solar System. The object, now known as 3I/ATLAS, is the third known after 'Oumuamua and Borisov
As of 2 July 2025, the comet is currently about 4.00 AU (600 million km) from the Earth, with an orbital eccentricity of 6.0 and moving at approximately 68 km/s relative to the Sun.
3I/ATLAS is available in default content since 10 July 2025 and an improved model is available for download for Celestia here
Source: NASA