All eyes on NASA tonight as new photos of interstellar visitor 3I/Atlas are about to be revealed

People all over the world are waiting to see what NASA will show tonight. At 9 p.m. Paris time, NASA will release new photos and information about 3I/ATLAS, a mysterious object traveling through our Solar System.

Scientists say it's only the third interstellar comet ever found, which means it came from another star system far away. Indeed, there has been much curiosity about this object. Some folks online speculate it might be an artifact from an alien civilization.

But scientists say that there's no evidence of it. For now, the most simple explanation is that 3I/ATLAS is a very old, very cold chunk of rock and ice which has been hurtling through the void for billions of years.

Still, many people are excited to see what NASA will reveal tonight.

How the comet was discovered

3I/ATLAS was discovered on July 1, 2025, by a system called ATLAS. This is a group of robotic telescopes that watch the sky for moving objects.

ATLAS spotted a faint moving dot of light, and after more checks, it became clear that it was not from our Solar System.

It became huge news when Avi Loeb, a scientist at Harvard, spoke about the discovery.

Loeb's claim to fame is that he advocated for the possibility that the first interstellar visitor, ʻOumuamua, was some sort of alien probe.

Most scientists disagreed with him, but his comments put 3I/ATLAS in the spotlight.

What scientists have learned so far

Using simple measurements of its position over time, scientists found that 3I/ATLAS is moving on a one-way paththrough our Solar System. It is not orbiting the Sun. It will pass by and then continue traveling into deep space again.

It is also moving extremely fast—much faster than objects that formed near our Sun. This is one clue that it came from very far away.

Both the Hubble Telescope and the James Webb Telescope have looked at it.

Early studies show that the object contains a lot of carbon dioxide, more than most comets we see near Earth. This suggests it was formed in a very cold place, maybe around a star much weaker than our Sun.

What NASA might show tonight

NASA will release new photos and new information during its live update. People are hoping that the images will help answer some long-standing questions: 

• What does 3I/ATLAS really look like? 
• Does it behave like a normal comet? 
• Is its shape or tail in any way peculiar? 
• Could there be signs of something unexpected? 

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Most scientists think tonight's update will confirm it's a natural comet. But many are still curious, especially as interstellar objects are so rare.

All eyes now turn to NASA, with everyone waiting for what the new images will reveal about this mysterious visitor from another star.

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