The Unexpected Arrival

Throughout history, the sudden appearance of comets was seen as warnings of bad things to come. People panicked, wars were lost, and fear of deadly plagues troubled people’s minds. 

Today, comets are viewed differently. To most they are ethereal celestial wonders occasionally gracing the night sky. To astronomers, they are the icy-coated remnants of the early solar system drawn in towards the sun by gravitational attraction. 

In early 2025, the unexpected arrival of 3I/ATLAS changed everything in the scientific community. Labeled a comet by NASA, this object did not look or act like one. It didn’t display a tail. Its elongated shape, composition and size was remarkably different from any other comet. Its incoming speed and path towards the sun revealed it was not part of our solar system. It originated from somewhere else in space. Speculations quickly grew. Was this cosmic interloper an intelligently controlled envoy passing through our solar system? Was it artificial in structure? Were we being visited by aliens that had mastered interstellar travel? Or was it a peculiar never-seen-before fragment of extraterrestrial rock flung across space and time now caught up by the gravitational pull of our sun? 

Don't you love mysteries? Let's dive deeper into the unexpected arrival of Comet 3I/ATLAS. 

David A. Aguilar is an internationally recognized naturalist/astronomer, author, onscreen science contributor and space artist with the unique ability to open minds to the vast frontiers of space and their potential effects on our own world. He is the former director of science information at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and past director of marketing communications for Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado. David has written and illustrated 12 award-winning children’s books for National Geographic, was a member of the NASA Pluto Encounter Mission, has consulted and appeared in the History Channel’s Universe series and has been honored with his own asteroid for achievements in furthering science education. He is also the science consultant for the TV series “UFO Hunters.” www.aspenskies.com