If this comet is what we think it is, it is unlike any object that humanity has ever seen

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Here’s what you will learn when you read this story:

• COMET 31/Atlas is only the third interstellar object ever observed, shrinking through the solar system.

• While its origin is uncertain, it is believed that the comet comes from a part of the Milky Way inhabited by some of the oldest stars of the galaxy.

• Although its age has not been confirmed if 31/Atlas really comes from this region, it can be 7 billion years old (compared to the age of 4.6 billion).

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A little deceptive interstellar objects (ISO) have entered our solar system. “Oumuamua almost broke the Internet in 2017 when he sneaked from the past, and Comet 2i/Borisov was caught to penetrate the NASA Hubble Space Telescope in 2019. Now we have another interloper.

Astronomers first watched Comet 31/Atlas on July 1. Although its origin remains unknown, researchers who have eyes on it believe that the flying piece of ice, dust and frozen gases comes from what is known as the thick disk of the Milky Way. This region of ancient stars – most over 10 billion years – is scattered in a layer above and below the thin disks of our galaxy (which is populated by younger stars).

If 31/Atlas was really born on the thick disk, it may be the oldest comet ever spotted at about 7 billion years; It’s 3 billion years older than the solar system. And the way it moves suspiciously up and down in the galactic plane is probably indicative of an object originating and remained in the disk for literal eons. If we are lucky, it can give us an inner look at the formation of the early Milky Way.

It is believed that this comet was originally an icy planesimal, one of the many smaller bodies that once merged to form planets. However, how it came to us today, it is more resort.

“Atlas has physical differences to the first two found ISOS, but its orbit and input speed is placed as a member of the Galactic Isos population,” the researchers said in a survey that was recently presented at the National Astronomical Society for 2025 in Durham, and published on the rear, and published on the rear, and published on the rear, and published on the rear, and published on the rear, and published in Durham, and published in Durhaw, Preprint Server Server at the National Astronomy Meeting in Durham, England, published on the Preprint Server Server in Durham, England and Posted on the Preprint Server Server at the National Meeting on the server ARXIVS

The research team uses the probable simulator that models star trajectories using the positions and speeds of each GAIA satellite of Star Esa, observed between 2014 and 2025 (even the dead), about a billion stars. This – combined with models of chemistry and dynamics of protoplanetary discs in the galaxy – allows them to predict the speeds, age and chemical composition of interstellar objects on the Milky Way.

Experts may be able to determine the properties of 31/atlas based on which star population it comes from. Star systems – including our own solar system – formed from protoplanetary gas and dust discs, and models accept that the properties of these discs are influenced by their stars. The models also suggest that ISOS deviates from its stars early and dispersed into the cold outer edges of a star system.

Another model used by researchers predicts how the speed of ISOS is related to their age, composition and other properties inherited from the star populations from which they originate. Here’s how the team invented an indicative age for 31/atlas and that it probably does not come from the same star as the previous two interstellar sites we have seen.

There are still many missing pieces in the history of the origin of 31/Atlas. Whether it has transmitted through the space along a relatively unsettled path, or its orbit is disturbed by different stars, it is unknown. Despite the proposed so far, the comet is still wrapped in gas, dust and mystery. But since interstellar objects are thought to exist almost indefinitely, they could carry particles of almost every star that once existed in the galaxy.

“ISO provides an opportunity to obtain evidence of the process of forming a plane and evolution from many galactic environments,” the researchers say. “Additional observations from 31/Atlas will allow us to [test our] assumptions. “

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