The interstellar object known as 3I/ATLAS (also designated C/2025 N1 (ATLAS)) is one of the most exciting and rare visitors our Solar System has ever seen. Here’s a comprehensive look at this cosmic intruder — how it was discovered, what makes it so special, what scientists have learned so far, and what puzzles remain. Discovery & Naming 3I/ATLAS was first observed on July 1 2025 by the Asteroid Terrestrial‑impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile.  At the time of discovery it was already moving on a path that didn’t fit the usual bound orbits of Solar System objects. The naming convention reflects its extraordinary nature: The “3” means this is the third interstellar object confirmed in our Solar System.  The “I” stands for interstellar, meaning it originated outside the Sun’s gravitational bound system.  “ATLAS” is the survey/telescope system that first reported it. So, the full designation “3I/ATLAS” conveys: third interstellar visito...

Outer Space is such a vast and really interesting topic to talk about. As we advance into research and discoveries, there’s always something to make our minds linger. This article is not just about demoting the Planet Pluto. A decade ago Mike Brown helped get Pluto demoted from a “planet” to a mere “dwarf planet.” A dwarf planet by definition is a planetary-mass object that is neither a planet nor a natural satellite. That is, it is in direct orbit of the Sun, and is massive enough for its gravity to crush itself into a hydrostatic equilibrium shape (usually a spheroid), but has not cleared the neighborhood of other material around its orbit. The term dwarf planet was adopted in 2006 as part of a three-way categorization of bodies orbiting the Sun, brought about by an increase in discoveries of objects farther away from the Sun than Neptune that rivaled Pluto in size, and finally precipitated by the discovery of an even more massive object, Eris. The exclusion of dwarf planets fro...