VLT Timelapse Of 3I/ATLAS, A New Interstellar Object

ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has obtained new images of 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object discovered last week. Identified as a comet, 3I/ATLAS is only the third visitor from outside the Solar System ever found, after 1I/ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov. Its highly eccentric hyperbolic orbit, unlike that of objects in the Solar System, gave away its interstellar origin.

In this VLT timelapse, 3I/ATLAS is seen moving to the right over the course of about 13 minutes. These data were obtained with the FORS2 instrument on the VLT on the night of 3 July 2025, just two days after the comet was first discovered. The data were made immediately public through the ESO archive.

At the end of the video, we see all frames stacked into a single image: the deepest and best to date we have of this foreign object. But this record won’t hold for long as the comet is getting closer to Earth and becoming less faint.

Currently more than 600 million kilometres away from the Sun, 3I/ATLAS is travelling towards the inner Solar System and is expected to make its closest approach to Earth in late October 2025. While 3I/ATLAS will be hiding behind the Sun at that point, it will become observable again in December 2025, as it makes its way back to interstellar space.

Telescopes around the world, including the VLT, will continue to observe this rare celestial visitor for as long as they can, to find out more about its shape, its composition and its origin. What surprises will these observations reveal? Stay tuned!

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