>Yet while the vast majority of comets that we know of originated on the outer edges of our Solar System, this interstellar visitor likely originated in some other Solar System, far beyond our Galaxy
Wouldn't this comet be most likely from the Milky Way, not far beyond our Galaxy? I mean it would be awesome if it was intergalatic.
> 3I/ATLAS was discovered on 1 July 2025 ... Initial observations of 3I/ATLAS were unclear on whether 3I/ATLAS is an asteroid or a comet ... observations on 2 July 2025 by the Deep Random Survey (X09) at Chile, Lowell Discovery Telescope (G37) at Arizona, and Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (T14) at Mauna Kea showed a marginal coma with a potential tail-like elongation 3 arcseconds in angular length, which indicated the object is a comet.
>Yet while the vast majority of comets that we know of originated on the outer edges of our Solar System, this interstellar visitor likely originated in some other Solar System, far beyond our Galaxy
Wouldn't this comet be most likely from the Milky Way, not far beyond our Galaxy? I mean it would be awesome if it was intergalatic.
Neat! I haven't been keeping super close tabs on 3I/ATLAS. Was it identified as a comet early or is this a recent development?
> 3I/ATLAS was discovered on 1 July 2025 ... Initial observations of 3I/ATLAS were unclear on whether 3I/ATLAS is an asteroid or a comet ... observations on 2 July 2025 by the Deep Random Survey (X09) at Chile, Lowell Discovery Telescope (G37) at Arizona, and Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (T14) at Mauna Kea showed a marginal coma with a potential tail-like elongation 3 arcseconds in angular length, which indicated the object is a comet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3I/ATLAS
So, a day or so after its official discovery, maybe a week after its "pre-discovery"