A third interstellar object has been discovered in the Solar System

Sensation in space: astronomers discover third interstellar object in our Solar System

"A new near-Earth object candidate A11pl3Z was discovered by the ATLAS observatory in Chile," reports the Minor Planet Center in its exciting discovery.

The mysterious space wanderer was captured in four images taken on July 1. Scientists have already given it a second name - 3I/Atlas. In the near future, researchers will conduct an additional series of observations to more accurately determine the orbit of the mysterious visitor.

"Preliminary reports of cometary activity with a slight coma (hazy envelope around the comet's nucleus - IF) and a short 3-inch tail at a position angle of 280 degrees are coming in," the report notes. According to official data, two similar objects were previously known: 1I/Oumuamua, discovered in 2017, and comet 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019-2020.

An interstellar object is an object that is in interstellar space and has no gravitational connection to any star.

NASA reassured the public: the comet poses no threat to Earth and will remain at a safe distance of about 240 million km.

"It is currently at a distance of about 4.5 astronomical units (about 416 million miles or 670 million km) from the Sun," the message states.