Giant Comet Racing Toward Earth Is Bigger Than Expected, And Might Not Be Natural, Scientist Warns

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00:00Giant comet racing toward Earth is bigger than expected and might not be natural.

00:06Scientist warns.

00:07A massive interstellar object named Comet 3 I-Atlas is racing through our solar system

00:13at 61 kilometers per second, prompting scientists to study what might be the largest cosmic

00:18visitor ever detected.

00:20Discovered in July 2025, it is the third known interstellar object following Oumuamua

00:27in 2017 and Comet 2 I-Borisov in 2019.

00:33The comet poses no threat to Earth, remaining approximately 170 million miles away at its

00:38closest approach.

00:40It will reach its closest point to the Sun inside Mars orbit in October 2025, before passing

00:46near Jupiter in March 2026 and returning to interstellar space.

00:51What makes 3 I-Atlas remarkable is its unprecedented size, potentially spanning one to three miles

00:57across and weighing approximately 33 billion tons.

01:01This dwarfs previous interstellar visitors by three to five orders of magnitude.

01:06The James Webb Space Telescope detected an unusually high ratio of carbon dioxide to water in the

01:11comet's coma, the highest ever recorded for any comet.

01:15Multiple space agencies are coordinating observations as it approaches the Sun.

01:20Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb controversially suggests that 3 I-Atlas could be alien technology,

01:26citing its unusual trajectory and properties, though most scientists reject this speculation.

01:32Astronomers are puzzled by its rarity, as detecting such a large interstellar object challenges

01:37existing models.

01:39The comet also features a rare sunward-pointing tail, and may be 3 to 14 billion years old.

01:45Whether natural or not, 3 I-Atlas provides valuable data about interstellar space and planetary

01:51formation.

01:52After its journey through our solar system, this cosmic visitor will vanish into deep space,

01:57never to return.