The giant asteroid made waves across the world last year when it came whizzing past Earth – with some experts convinced it was a type of alien craft
Scientists have made a major discovery surrounding the mysterious 3I/ATLAS comet. New research has suggested that the giant space rock could be billions of years older than the Earth itself.
The asteroid made waves across the world last year when it came whizzing past the Earth in one of the first interstellar objects to be caught on camera. However, some were convinced it was not a rock but in fact some form of alien craft.
NASA eventually ruled out this possibility and confirmed 3I/ATLAS was simply a comet passing through our solar system.
Astronomers using European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) had been observing the comet for quite some time before 3I/ATLAS came past the Earth. After months of intense investigations, they claimed the comet came from a nearby star system that had died.
They added that the age of the comet could be three times that of Earth, meaning it would be billions of years older than any life to exist on our planet. Speaking on the results, Cyrielle Opitom from the University of Edinburgh said there is plenty still to discover.
“The field of interstellar objects is still very new, and we do not really know what to expect,” Opitom said. “Every time a new one is discovered, we have new surprises.”
Boffins found that the comet had likely formed on the outskirts of a “low-metallicity” star, meaning a lack of major elements like helium.
They also suggested that the object could have taken shape when the universe was in a much younger phase of its life than it is now, meaning it would likely be older than our sun.
Rosemary Dorse, a researcher based in Helsinki, Finland − and who co-wrote the study on 3I/ATLAS − said: “3I/ATLAS is a really exciting opportunity to probe the composition of another planetary system, one that formed long before our Sun and Solar System even existed.” The composition of the comet was also found, with an abundance of lethal gases such as nitrogen, cyanide and carbon.
Following its journey is now getting harder for scientists to track as it continues to move past the sun. As a result, further studies of the comet using the VLT are now dwindling, but scientists are working to create bigger and better telescopes to continue to observe the universe.
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