Team of astronomers tracking interstellar object think it could be a 10,000,000,000-year-old time capsule

An interstellar object that is currently flying through the Milky Way could be a 10-billion-year-old time capsule, according to a team of astronomers.

Outside of our little Earth-bound bubble, the stars are constantly dancing through the galaxy like endless specs of paint on the best canvas in the universe.

But while Orion’s Belt is jousting with the bow of Cygnus, astronomers have been able to dig a little deeper into the wider universe and track one very interesting comet that is rocketing through space.

This particular interstellar object, a comet named 3I/Atlas, could actually be over 10,000,000,000 years old.

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Astronomers are reverse-engineering this ancient interstellar object through time and space

The Milky Way plays host to over 100 billion stars, enveloping the water-covered ball of rock that we call home.

But some are prone to falling out of the sky or ripping through the galaxy and causing quite a drama.

Now, one interstellar object that possibly predates Earth has begun to attract the attention of the biggest telescopes we have.

And a team from the University of A Coruña claims that this 5km rock is actually twice as old as our own planet.

Despite it now residing on the other side of the sun, closer in fact to the NASA Perseverance Rover on Mars, the team has been tracking its progress and reverse engineering its trajectory to find out where it came from.

What they discovered is that the interstellar object is roughly 10 billion years old and likely came from the explosion of a primordial planet.

“What makes 3I/ATLAS unique is that it allows us to study the evolution of objects originating from other stellar systems – something we had only theorized about until now,” said Team Leader Xabier Pérez Couto.

“Each observation is like opening a window into the Universe’s past.”

It originally drew the attention of the astronomers due to its ‘unusually high excess velocity’, and it has served as a stark reminder that our planet is just a speck in the wider universe.

Not every asteroid is as friendly as this, though

The fascinating interstellar object is currently scorching through Mars’ orbit, but it will steer well clear of Earth.

That wasn’t quite the case for others, though, as NASA has been breathing a sigh of relief as the asteroid 2024 ON skimmed the Earth’s atmosphere in a recent near miss.

The space experts are always tracking how comets and meteors interact with Earth and the surrounding planets, and even deliberated blowing one to pieces as it threatened to crash into the Moon.

While this group of astronomers has given us a cool insight into interstellar life, others have become a little bit distracted by a car flying around in space.

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