Discovery of '3I/ATLAS': An interstellar guest travelling our Solar System

Astronomers and experts have discovered an unidentified interstellar object, that happens to be touring our Solar System. Given the provisional name A11pl3Z, and officially named 3I/ATLAS, the object appears to be 20 kilometers in diameter and has a hyperbolic orbit.

The NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey telescope was the first to detect this object, and the European Space Agency (ESA) confirmed of its origin on Wednesday, highlighting its unusual velocity and trajectory curve.

The ESA is now closely monitoring its movements through its global sets of telescopes, the ESA Operations took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to update interested users and professionals alike.

With 3I/ATLAS having a hyperbolic orbit, its eccentricity is said to be between 6 and 11.6, an estimated threshold that helps us identify the difference between objects originating from our Solar System to the ones emerging from elsewhere.

The object will not present to be a threat to Earth, and is currently inside Jupiter's orbit. It is anticipated that it will be closest to the Sun in October, within a distance of 1.35 astronomical units, which is approximately 200 million kilometers, from the star.

The object will pass close to Mars, and can be observed by various ground telescopes. It may be tough to view 3I/ATLAS, as it will appear to be very faint due to its apparent magnitude (brightness levels) being 18.8. Larger telescopes have a higher possibility of viewing it, a golden chance to sight the interstellar marvel.

3I/ATLAS is only the third known interstellar object on records, apart from Oumuamua observed in Hawaii (2017) and Comet Borisov in Crimea (2019). It was first sighted through the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile. The sightings records prior to its official discovery lead back to June 14.

In the coming days, Minor Planet Center will be updating the world on its details and movements. NASA has estimated that on-ground telescopes can view it through the month of September, and then again around early December.