00:00A mysterious visitor from beyond the stars just made headlines.
00:03And it's dripping with secrets older than Earth itself.
00:06Meet Comet 3, I-slash-Atlas,
00:09only the third known interstellar object to ever swing through our solar system.
00:14But this isn't just any space rock.
00:16Scientists have found it's loaded with water ice that may be 7 billion years old.
00:20That's older than Earth and even our Sun.
00:23This ancient ice could be a time capsule from another planetary system,
00:27preserved through billions of years of cosmic travel.
00:30And that's not all.
00:32It also carries a mix of organic molecules and carbon-based minerals.
00:35Sound familiar?
00:37That's because it shares traits with D-type asteroids in our own asteroid belt,
00:41using powerful telescopes in Hawaii and Chile.
00:44Researchers studied its light signature and saw the unmistakable signs of a coma,
00:49the hazy envelope of gas and dust that confirms it's an active comet.
00:53Its strange blend of comet and asteroid traits is rewriting what we know about interstellar visitors,
00:59and possibly even how solar systems like ours evolve.
01:02The full truth?
01:04Still hidden in that icy core.
01:06But one thing's clear.
01:083I-slash-Atlas didn't just pass through.
01:10It brought answers to some of the galaxy's oldest questions.
01:133I-slash-Atlas
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