However, new research has shown this potentially "water ice-rich" visitor could be even more extraordinary than initially believed. 3I/ATLAS could be around 3 billion years older than our 4.5 billion-year-old solar system and thus any comet ever before observed.

A mystery interstellar object discovered last week is likely to be the oldest comet ever seen—possibly predating our solar system by more than 3 billion years, researchers say.

After defending his PhD thesis on modeling interstellar objects on Monday, June 30, Matthew Hopkins intended to take some well-deserved time off. It would appear the universe had other plans for him.