Why Astronomers Are Excited About Comet 3I/ATLAS’ Close Approach

from Science Friday · host Rasha Aridi, Flora Lichtman

This year, comet 3I/Atlas broke into our solar system, but also the zeitgeist. This dirty snowball is a visitor from another solar system, and it’s only the third interstellar object we’ve ever spotted. And today, it's closer to us than ever before—just 170 million miles away.Astronomy experts Stefanie Milam and Hakeem Oluseyi join Host Flora Lichtman to dish about 3I/ATLAS and how it captured the spotlight in a way that maybe no other big hunk of rock ever has.Plus, the sun is setting on the ISS, and the plan is to eventually crash it into the ocean. But wouldn’t it be cooler to send it into deep space instead? A listener pleads his case.Guests: Dr. Stefanie Milam is an astrochemist at NASA and a project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope. She studies comets and interstellar objects.Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi is an astrophysicist and CEO of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What this episode covers

Comet 3I/Atlas is just the third known object to visit us from outside our solar system. So yes... we'll be talking about aliens.

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Why Astronomers Are Excited About Comet 3I/ATLAS’ Close Approach

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This episode was published on December 19, 2025.

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