NASA Discovers a “Sister” Comet of 3I/ATLAS Racing Toward Earth

Bright Side

NASA just spotted what looks like a “sister” comet to 3I/ATLAS racing through our solar system, and the discovery shocked astronomers because both objects seem to come from the same mysterious region of interstellar space. This new comet follows a similar path, moves at incredible speed, and behaves like it was formed under the exact same conditions as ATLAS, which was only the second confirmed interstellar comet ever found. Scientists say its trajectory brings it closer to Earth’s neighborhood than expected, giving us a rare chance to study material that didn’t form in our solar system at all. The strange chemistry, unusual brightness patterns, and odd behavior of both comets hint at secrets about how planets form around other stars.  Credit: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en Gennady Borisov: by Topp https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gennady_Borisov.jpg 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov: by ESO https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ESOcast_224.webm Rubin Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt Illustration: by RubinObs / NOIRLab / SLAC / NSF / DOE / AURA https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rubin_Oort_Cloud_and_Kuiper_Belt_Illustration_(rubin-Oort-Cloud-and-Kuiper-Belt).jpg Interstellar objects: by Tony873004 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_comparison_of_two_interstellar_objects_passing_through_our_solar_system.gif Comet 3I ATLAS Moon: by Raysastrophotograhy https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comet_3I_ATLAS_Moon_16Nov2025.webm 3I ATLAS animation: by CSS, D. Rankin; Video recorded and edited by User:Renerpho https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:3I_ATLAS_animation1.webm Oumuamua: by ESO / M.Kornmesser https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Animation_of_artist%27s_concept_of_%60Oumuamua.webm 3I ATLAS animation: by CSS, D. Rankin; Video recorded and edited by User:Renerpho https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:3I_ATLAS_animation_3.webm Comet 3I before passing Mars: by Filipp Romanov https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comet_3I_before_passing_Mars.jpg Interstellar Visitor: by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - eMITS / Paul Morris https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Interstellar_Visitor_is_Fastest_Comet_Ever_Recorded_(SVS14882_ATLAS_WIDE_MP4).webm El Viaje de Bennu: by NASA https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:El_Viaje_de_Bennu.webm Alien Composition of 2I-Borisov, 1st Interstellar Comet: by NASA https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Reveals_Alien_Composition_of_2I-Borisov,_1st_Interstellar_Comet_NNOb3xrjOhE.webm Animation is created by Bright Side. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00A mysterious space visitor has recently passed its closest approach to Earth,

00:05flying by at a distance of 64 million miles.

00:09It might be something totally natural and born on the outskirts of the solar system.

00:14Or some unknown civilization could be examining us from above right at this moment.

00:21This new object looks a lot like another strange wanderer called Three-Eye Atlas.

00:27And you'll understand why we say strange pretty soon.

00:30So, could both of them come from the same place outside our solar system?

00:36What we do know is that this new object is relatively close to us,

00:40in space terms, of course, and scientists are now studying it closely.

00:45They first spotted it inside our solar system.

00:48And people are paying attention because it showed up not long after Three-Eye Atlas passed near our sun.

00:55On November 2, 2025, astronomer Gennady Borisov,

01:01the same person who discovered interstellar comet 2I Borisov in 2019, found this new object.

01:08It's now got its official name and is listed in NASA's and the Minor Planet Center's databases.

01:15C-2025 V1 has some unusual features.

01:20Its orbit is tilted 113 degrees, which means it's moving almost up and over the regular path that planets take.

01:28Even more bizarre, its orbital plane is almost at a right angle to the path of Three-Eye Atlas.

01:35Plus, it doesn't have a clear comet tail, which is odd.

01:39Right now, its orbit has an eccentricity of 1.0095.

01:46And let me break it down in human language.

01:49If that number was well above 1, it would mean the object definitely came from outside the solar system.

01:55But because it's only just a bit above 1,

01:58The most likely explanation is that C-2025 V1 came from the Oort cloud.

02:05That's a giant, far-away shell of icy objects that surrounds the solar system.

02:11Now, scientists check this by basically rewinding the object's path,

02:16sending it all the way back to about 1,000 AU.

02:20That's 1,000 times farther than the Earth is from the Sun.

02:23At that huge distance, the planets can't mess with its motion anymore.

02:29When they redo the orbit from that point, its eccentricity,

02:33the number that tells you if it's from outside the solar system,

02:37usually drops below 1, which means it's still part of our solar system.

02:42But at the same time, even a tiny push from Jupiter while passing by

02:47could make even a normal Oort cloud comet look like it has an eccentricity slightly above 1.

02:54And on top of that, small blasts of gas coming off the comet's surface

02:59can also change the numbers a little.

03:02So, to put it simply, it probably isn't interstellar.

03:05It just looks that way because of small pushes and gas bursts.

03:11C-2025 V1 is still exciting, even if it comes from the Oort cloud,

03:16because studying it gives us a chance to analyze the material from that distant region

03:21and learn how our solar system formed and evolved.

03:25Now, let's get back to the mystery of 3I Atlas.

03:28Before anything else, let's explain what 3I Atlas actually is.

03:33It's most likely a comet, basically a huge, dirty snowball flying through space.

03:39You can't see it with your own eyes or with a regular telescope.

03:43But there's good news!

03:44A powerful telescope in Italy is streaming it live for free.

03:49So, anyone can actually watch this mysterious object as it passes by.

03:54Scientists think this comet weighs about 33 billion tons.

03:58That number is hard to imagine, so here are a few comparisons.

04:02The Eiffel Tower weighs around 10,000 tons.

04:05So, 33 billion tons is the same as a whopping 3.3 million Eiffel Towers.

04:11And if you decide to compare the space visitor to buildings,

04:1633 billion tons is about the same as the weight of several huge city areas

04:21made entirely of steel and concrete.

04:23But even all that size isn't the wildest part.

04:27Some experts think this object might be a piece of unknown technology from outside our galaxy.

04:33And they're not saying this just for fun.

04:36There are real reasons behind the theory.

04:403i Atlas was first noticed in July by NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial Impact Last Alert System,

04:47or ATLAS.

04:49Shortly after, NASA confirmed that the object wasn't from our solar system at all.

04:54It's an interstellar object, only the third ever discovered.

04:58The first one was Oumuamua in 2017, which looked long and flat and didn't behave like a normal rock.

05:06The second was comet B.I. Borisov in 2019.

05:11Now we have 3i Atlas, and it is enormous compared with the other two.

05:17Its nucleus is up to 3.5 miles wide,

05:20while Oumuamua was only about a quarter mile long,

05:24and Borisov was around a half mile across.

05:27Besides being huge, 3i Atlas is unusual in several other ways.

05:33As it moves through the solar system,

05:35it's releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide and gas.

05:39This suggests that 3i Atlas is 3 to 5 orders of magnitude,

05:44which means 1,000 to 100,000 times more massive than the other two known interstellar visitors.

05:51Such an enormous difference is a real scientific mystery.

05:55It's also traveling incredibly fast, about 150,000 miles per hour,

06:01which is almost 200 times the speed of sound.

06:05And unlike objects in our solar system, which followed curved paths because of gravity,

06:113i Atlas is moving on a nearly straight line.

06:14That alone makes it stand out.

06:16These odd behaviors have led some researchers to consider a pretty unexpected idea.

06:233i Atlas might be a probe sent by another civilization, possibly to study Earth.

06:30According to this theory, the object could be a sign of some kind of intelligence from beyond our solar system.

06:36Why do they think this?

06:38Well, because the object's movement doesn't match what you'd expect from something controlled only by gravity.

06:45It also passes close to Venus, Mars, and Jupiter.

06:49And these are the planets that might be especially interesting for an outside civilization to observe.

06:55Another very unusual feature of 3i Atlas's path is that its orbit is tilted only a little compared to the plane of the solar system,

07:06about 5 degrees, and it moves in the opposite direction to most planets.

07:11This feature might allow the object, or its creators, to take extremely precise measurements of planets,

07:18things like their orbits and sizes, to plan a perfect flight route through the solar system.

07:24And if 3i Atlas suddenly changes direction at some point,

07:28that could mean it's using a built-in engine instead of simply drifting through space.

07:34Now, new photos have also shown that 3i Atlas has at least 7 jets blasting material into space,

07:42some shooting in totally opposite directions.

07:44Now, if this thing is just a normal comet, it would have had to lose a huge amount of its original mass

07:51when it passed near the Sun – way more than just 10-20%.

07:56Only some of that material would actually push the object in one direction.

08:00So the total amount blown off would need to be massive.

08:05If that's what happened, then there should be now a giant cloud of gas and dust around 3i Atlas.

08:11And if that cloud exists, it'll be pretty easy to figure out what the comet is made of.

08:17The James Webb Space Telescope will check this when 3i Atlas gets closest to Earth on December 19, 2025.

08:26But if 3i Atlas is not a normal comet, and is actually some kind of technology,

08:33it wouldn't need to lose that much material.

08:36Engines built by an advanced civilization could give it a boost while using way less gas,

08:41because they shoot it out way faster.

08:44Faster exhaust gives more push with less fuel.

08:47So a technological object wouldn't need to blast away big chunks of itself the way a natural comet would.

08:55So to sum it up, there's still a big mystery around 3i Atlas.

08:59Could it really be a technological mothership that release small probes into the inner solar system?

09:05But C-2025 V1 doesn't fit that idea, unless one of the objects used some kind of engine.

09:14The closest their orbits ever come is about 46 million miles.

09:19And the two objects themselves were never closer to each other than about 140 million miles.

09:25The tiny, non-gravitational push, detected in 3i Atlas, is nowhere near strong enough to close this gap.

09:33So, C-2025 V1 is almost certainly not one of the many probes people imagine 3i Atlas might have released.

09:42That's it for today.

09:44So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

09:49Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side!

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