An object older than the solar system is crossing familiar planetary territory, and spacecraft built for entirely different missions are turning into a makeshift deep-space observatory to study it.

Interstellar objects move too fast and arrive too rarely for astronomy to rely on a single instrument or a single kind of light. When comet 3I/ATLAS was first reported on July 1, 2025, observatories ...

A visitor from another star system is creating excitement in the astronomy community. The comet 3I/ATLAS which was first spotted in July 2025 contains chemical clues that scientists can use to ...

Astronomers using ALMA have found large quantities of methanol in comet 3I/ATLAS, making it one of the most alcohol-rich ...

Lead researcher Nathan Roth said the image shows the comet is “bursting with methanol in a way we just don’t usually see.” ...

When astronomers first observed comet 3I/ATLAS, they realized it was special. It is just the third confirmed interstellar object to pass through our Solar System, after the enigmatic ‘Oumuamua and the ...

Astronomers studying a rare interstellar comet have discovered something surprising: it contains unusually large amounts of methanol, a type of alcohol. The discovery offers a fascinating glimpse into ...

Earth has been around for 4.543 billion years. At numerous times during that long history, our planet has shared itself with the rest of the Solar System, particularly with our immediate neighbors. Sc ...

War Machine imagines a machine arriving from space. Real astronomy has detected interstellar visitors like ʻOumuamua, 2I/Borisov and 3I/ATLAS.

I/ATLAS, the unusual interstellar comet that continues to fascinate astronomers, appears to be keeping an intoxicating cosmic ...

In 2022, a NASA spacecraft intentionally barreled into the tiny asteroid Dimorphos during a planetary defense test. New observations show how it went.

NASA's DART mission launched from California changed not just the orbit of Dimorphos, the asteroid it hit, but the larger Didymos' path around the sun.