Interstellar comet 3I ATLAS passed through the Solar System in 2025, and researchers have now estimated its age. According to their data, it may be more than 9 billion years old — twice the age of the Sun.
Researchers reached this conclusion by studying the comet’s chemical composition with the Very Large Telescope (VLT). Its makeup contains chemical traces indicating that 3I ATLAS formed in a star system with a low abundance of heavy elements.
The comet offers a rare chance to study material from another planetary system: it has preserved information about the conditions in which it formed and may help scientists better understand how planetary systems arose in the distant past.
