Webb Reveals Secrets of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
Imagine a frozen traveler from another star system sweeping through our cosmic neighborhood—something so rare that it has only happened twice before in recorded history. That’s exactly what astronomers are witnessing right now with comet 3I/ATLAS. First spotted in July 2025 by the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile, this comet is the third confirmed interstellar object to pass through our Solar System, after ‘Oumuamua in 2017 and Borisov in 2019. And now, thanks to the unmatched power of the James Webb Space Telescope, we’re learning more about it than ever before.
On August 6, 2025, Webb turned its infrared eye and its Near-Infrared Spectrograph directly onto 3I/ATLAS. What it revealed is nothing short of remarkable. As the comet approached the Sun, frozen materials inside its nucleus began to sublimate—meaning they skipped straight from solid ice to gas. This process, known as outgassing, creates the hazy halo, or “coma,” and the signature glowing tail we associate with comets. But what Webb detected in that halo shocked astronomers: the comet contains the highest ratio of carbon dioxide to water vapor ever observed in such an object.
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Normally, comets in our Solar System release water vapor far more abundantly. But in 3I/ATLAS, water appears relatively suppressed, while carbon dioxide dominates. This imbalance could point to an unusual formation history. Perhaps the comet originated in a part of its home star’s protoplanetary disk called the “carbon dioxide ice line,” where temperatures were cold enough for CO₂ to freeze into solid ice. Or maybe it spent billions of years exposed to intense cosmic radiation, altering its chemistry in ways we don’t usually see in local comets.
Alongside carbon dioxide and water, Webb also identified carbon monoxide, water ice, and a rare gas called carbonyl sulfide, which has a distinctly unpleasant smell. Meanwhile, NASA’s newly launched SPHEREx observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope have been conducting their own observations, confirming that this interstellar visitor is packed with volatile ices and gases that could be older than Earth itself. Some studies even suggest the comet may be around seven billion years old, making it far more ancient than our Solar System.
For scientists, this comet is a natural time capsule. By studying it, astronomers can compare the conditions under which it formed with those that shaped our Sun and planets 4.6 billion years ago. Each data point adds to a growing picture of how planetary systems across the galaxy evolve, and what makes ours unique—or not.
The clock is ticking, though. 3I/ATLAS poses no danger to Earth—it will stay at least 240 million kilometers away—but it won’t linger. By late September, it will slip too close to the Sun to be seen from Earth, briefly reemerging in December before vanishing back into the depths of interstellar space, never to return. By then, however, thanks to Webb and its fellow telescopes, it will be leaving with far fewer secrets than it arrived with.
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