Oldest comet discovered in space

A mysterious interstellar object discovered by a team of British astronomers may be the oldest comet ever observed.

The cosmic body, now named 3I/ATLAS, is one of the few known objects to originate from a completely different region of space, the researchers explained.

Unlike previous interstellar visitors, 3I/ATLAS appears to follow a steep, unusual trajectory, suggesting it comes from the “thick disk” of the Milky Way.

University of Oxford astronomer Matthew Hopkins said: "All non-interstellar comets, such as Halley's Comet, formed with our solar system, so they’re up to 4.5 billion years old. But interstellar visitors have the potential to be far older—and based on our statistical method, 3I/ATLAS is very likely to be the oldest comet we’ve ever seen."

This means 3I/ATLAS could be around 3 billion years older than our solar system. The object was first detected in early July by a telescope located in Chile.

(QG - Source: Sky News - Picture : © Unsplash)