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.

A rock from another solar system is a direct probe of how planetesimal formation took place at another star,” explained Michele Bannister, a planetary scientist at the Rubin Observatory. The recent discovery of 3I/ATLAS,