Fastest-Recorded Interstellar Comet, 3I/ATLAS, Reaches Speed of 130,000 MPH
Fastest Interstellar Comet Ever Discovered: Comet 3I/ATLAS
Comet 3I/ATLAS, a remarkable celestial object traveling at an unprecedented speed, has been making waves in the astronomical community. This interstellar comet, first discovered on July 1, 2020, is currently believed to hail from the thick disk of the Milky Way, based on its speed and orbit.
The comet's speed is truly astounding. Relative to the Sun, it moves at an astonishing 58 km/s (approximately 130,000 mph or 209,000 km/h), making it faster than any other interstellar object ever discovered. This high velocity is partly due to gravitational interactions over billions of years with stars and nebulae during its interstellar journey.
Regarding its size, observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope estimate the comet’s nucleus to be no larger than about 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) wide. Though the nucleus itself is not directly resolved, Hubble’s high-resolution imaging and analysis of dust and gas emissions allowed astronomers to narrow down this size estimate.
Comet 3I/ATLAS follows a hyperbolic trajectory, indicating it came from outside the Solar System. Its velocity components show it belongs to the thick disk population of the Milky Way, and its age is very old—estimated between 3 and 14 billion years, possibly making it older than the Solar System itself.
David Jewitt, a researcher from the University of California, Los Angeles, has stated that Comet 3I/ATLAS is one of a previously undetected population of objects. The comet's speed and size, along with its interstellar origin, make it a unique and valuable subject for ongoing research.
The paper with the Hubble results for Comet 3I/ATLAS was published on arXiv, and the paper with the Hubble results will also be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Continuous observations, including those with JWST, TESS, Swift, and ground-based observatories, will provide more insight into Comet 3I/ATLAS.
Comet 3I/ATLAS will be visible from Earth until September, then behind the Sun from our point of view, and reappear in December. On October 30, 2025, it will get as close as 210 million kilometers from the Sun.
Summary:
| Parameter | Value | |-----------------------|----------------------------------| | Speed relative to Sun | ~58 km/s (130,000 mph / 209,000 km/h) | | Estimated nucleus size | ≤ 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) wide | | Origin | Interstellar, thick disk population of Milky Way | | Age estimate | Between 3 and 14 billion years |
These estimates come from the latest astrophysical studies and Hubble observations as of mid-2025.
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