Archive: https://archive.today/v8elj From the post: >>What an ugly comet would make were it compounded in another sun? To the astronomers 3I/ATLAS is something of a laboratory sample a frozen object which was never a constituent of the Solar System, yet happened temporarily close enough to permit the present equipment to query its gases, dust, and motion. The object was first detected in early July 2025 by the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile and shortly thereafter, the object was detected and proven to be interstellar and obviously cometary, beginning to develop a coma when the sunlight began to drive the volatiles off its surface. The geometry which is also against it, the orbit keeps it so distant that it can be seen without much trouble over an extended period, and it never comes within a distance of less than 1.6 astronomical units, which means that it can be observed over a lengthy period without the problems of a close relationship.