{"684994":{"#nid":"684994","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"Here\u0027s what astronomers know so far about the 3rd interstellar visitor ever found","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003EOn July 1, the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) detected what was first believed to be an asteroid. As calculations for its orbit progressed, it was found to be from outside our solar system, only the third interstellar object ever detected.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003E[One] thing that astronomers discovered early on was that, rather than being an asteroid, the interstellar interloper dubbed 3I\/ATLAS was a comet.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003E\u0022It is doing things that we expect comets to do. It\u0027s producing the types of gasses that we see comets produce. It\u0027s got a coma and a tail now pointed in the expected direction,\u0022 said\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/eas.gatech.edu\/people\/wray-james\u0022\u003EJames Wray\u003C\/a\u003E, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology\u0027s\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/eas.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0022I would say the short summary is it looks generally like a comet. But in detail, there are some intriguing differences from solar system comets.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003EOn July 1, the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) detected what was first believed to be an asteroid. As calculations for its orbit progressed, it was found to be from outside our solar system, only the third interstellar object ever detected.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003E[One] thing that astronomers discovered early on was that, rather than being an asteroid, the interstellar interloper dubbed 3I\/ATLAS was a comet.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003E\u0022It is doing things that we expect comets to do. It\u0027s producing the types of gasses that we see comets produce. It\u0027s got a coma and a tail now pointed in the expected direction,\u0022 said\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/eas.gatech.edu\/people\/wray-james\u0022\u003EJames Wray\u003C\/a\u003E, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology\u0027s\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/eas.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0022I would say the short summary is it looks generally like a comet. But in detail, there are some intriguing differences from solar system comets.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"36583","created_gmt":"2025-09-17 16:31:14","changed_gmt":"2025-09-18 14:29:06","author":"lvidal7","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"CBC Lite","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/lite\/story\/1.7632397","dateline":{"date":"2025-09-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2025-09-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"364801","name":"School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS)"}],"categories":[{"id":"136","name":"Aerospace"},{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"166926","name":"School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences"},{"id":"192252","name":"cos-planetary"},{"id":"194024","name":"comets"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}