“Current data on this object places it totally beyond collision risk,” NASA reports. “3I/ATLAS is expected to cruise harmlessly well outside Earth’s orbit.”
The comet’s perihelion — its closest point to the Sun — is expected around October 30, 2025, at about 1.4 AU, still inside Mars’ orbit but nowhere near Earth.
Some articles have explored what might happen if such a massive interstellar object hit our planet, but scientists emphasize that these scenarios are purely hypothetical.
A collision of this scale would create explosive energy equivalent to multiple nuclear weapons, vaporize material, and disrupt global climate — but orbital calculations show the chances of this are extremely remote.
Stunning New Observations Reveal an Unusual Comet
While 3I/ATLAS poses no threat, it has captured scientific interest because its composition is unlike most comets observed in our solar system.
Recent images by astrophotographers Satoru Murata and Francois Kugel revealed:
- A complex gas tail
- A developing dust tail
- A faint false anti-tail
Even more intriguing are the findings from the James Webb Space Telescope, which show:
- A coma unusually rich in carbon dioxide (CO₂)
- A CO₂-to-water ratio far above typical comets
- Water vapor emerging at roughly 40 kg per second
Such volatile-rich chemistry could provide rare clues about planetary systems beyond our own.
