Scientists Concede 3I/ATLAS May Be Untraceable—'It's Like a Ghost from Space'

Scientists studying the interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS now concede that its origins may forever remain a mystery—'it's like a ghost from space'.

A Cosmic Enigma

Discovered on 1 July 2025 by the Asteroid Terrestrial‑impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey telescope in Chile, 3I/ATLAS immediately stood out as extraordinary.

It was reported that its orbital path is highly hyperbolic, which means it is not bound by our Sun's gravity and therefore must have come from beyond the Solar System.

But despite all the high-powered telescopes turned towards it, scientists say they may never trace back exactly where it came from—and that fact raises profound questions for humanity's understanding of our cosmic neighbourhood.

Why Tracing Its Birthplace Is So Hard

One of the central obstacles is time and the vastness of the galaxy. The team behind one recent analysis noted that tracing 3I/ATLAS's path through the Milky Way over millions of years is 'quite difficult to understand'.

The object appears to have been flung out of its original star system billions of years ago, and many stellar encounters have likely scattered it since.

As one summary put it: 'Its unusually high excess velocity and active cometary nature make it a key probe ... but its origin star is unknown.'

Add to that the sheer number of stars it might have passed and the gravitational chaos it has likely experienced, and the origin trail quickly vanishes.

What We Know About 3I/ATLAS

Although its birthplace is effectively lost, the comet still offers a wealth of data.

First, the observations by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and other infrared instruments found that its coma (the cloud of gas and dust around the nucleus) is dominated by carbon dioxide, with a CO₂/H₂O mixing ratio among the highest ever observed in a comet.

Second, it is significantly larger and brighter than previous interstellar objects, making it an exceptionally favourable target.

Finally, a Live Science article hinted that the comet will pass inside the orbit of Mars, reach perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) around late October 2025, then depart our Solar System for good.

Why the Origin May Remain Unknowable

The main reason is simple: the comet has traveled for so long through the galaxy that its trail is gone. The original article from New Scientist reports that scientists believe we may 'never figure out where [3I/ATLAS] came from'.

With no identifiable parent star and dozens of possible gravitational interactions, the comet's past is irretrievably blurred.

One lead researcher remarked that over millions of years, 'an object could encounter spiral arms and all sorts of things that can really throw off its trajectory in the galaxy'.

The analogy of a 'ghost' is apt—visible now, mysterious, and then gone, leaving only questions.

Final Thoughts

3I/ATLAS may never reveal its exact home star, but it will nonetheless leave its mark on science. As one astronomer put it: the comet is 'a time capsule from another system.'

Its arrival, passage, and departure remind us of our cosmic neighbourhood's richness and the limits of what we can know. In that sense, like a ghost, it comes, passes through, and disappears, leaving a mystery that invites us to look up and wonder.