There Is Officially An Unidentified INTERSTELLAR Object Flying Through Space Right Now At Speeds Never Seen Before

Science Alert- Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through our Solar System – only the third ever spotted, though scientists suspect many more may slip past unnoticed.

The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, is likely the largest yet detected. It has been classified as a comet.

"The fact that we see some fuzziness suggests that it is mostly ice rather than mostly rock," Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told AFP.

Originally known as A11pl3Z before it was confirmed to be of interstellar origin, the object poses no threat to Earth, said Richard Moissl, head of planetary defense at the European Space Agency.

"It will fly deep through the Solar System, passing just inside the orbit of  Mars," but will not hit our neighbouring planet, he said.

Are the aliens FINALLY headed our way?

Or is it a young Matthew McConahghy on his way back to see his 100 year old daughter before she passes away? (Not literally him, but one of us, from the future, traveling back in time once we finally cracked that whole Tesseract puzzle.)

I’ll let you decide. 

All I know is this thing is NOT a frozen ice ball like they’d like us to believe.

Excited astronomers are still refining their calculations, but the object appears to be zooming more than 60 kilometers (37 miles) a second.

The trajectory of the interstellar comet through the Solar System. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

This would mean it is not bound by the Sun's orbit, unlike comets and asteroids, which all originate from within the Solar System.

Its trajectory also "means it's not orbiting our star, but coming from interstellar space and flying off to there again," Moissl said.

"We think that probably these little ice balls get formed associated with star systems," added McDowell. "And then as another star passes by, tugs on the ice ball, frees it out. It goes rogue, wanders through the galaxy, and now this one is just passing us."

Yah ok guys. 

I was born at night, but not last night. 

Not sure what exactly we have on our hands, but you already know I’m pulling for aliens. 

Happy 4th of July!