Well, it's July 12, which means (a) the Steam Summer Sale is over and (b) it's really hot outside in the northeastern U.S. This week, researchers discovered a cool new fish and named it after Darth Vader.

Just the third-ever confirmed interstellar object has been detected in our solar system. Here's what we know. (Spoiler: It's not aliens.)

On July 1, 2025, the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey telescope, located in northern Chile, spotted a new object just inside the orbit of Jupiter. ATLAS scans the sky every night looking for any new comets or asteroids, with specific interest in anything that could be on a collision course with Earth.

What at first seemed a routine detection of an object travelling through the solar system soon turned out to be anything but. The object’s trajectory revealed it to be a much rarer visitor than first thought.

Scientists have been studying an interstellar object that's currently moving through our solar system which was first spotted on 1 July. It has been called 3I/ATLAS because of what spotted it, and this object being the third detected interstellar object in our system.

I/ATLAS might be over 7 billion years old, a new study reports, which would make it the oldest comet known. But experts caution we need more data.

A new interstellar object, A11pl3Z, has been discovered in our solar system, marking the third such object to be observed. It was first discovered zipping near the sun this fall.

NASA has discovered a new interstellar comet that's currently located about 420 million miles away from Earth. The space agency spotted the quick-moving object with the Atlas telescope in Chile on Tuesday and confirmed it was a comet from another star system. The new interstellar comet's official name is 3I/ATLAS.

Astronomers are scrambling to gather data on a mysterious object that’s currently hurtling through the solar system. Preliminary observations suggest it came from interstellar space, and if confirmed, it would mark the third discovery of an interstellar object in history.

A newly discovered comet, 3I/ATLAS, may be the most ancient visitor ever detected, potentially older than our solar system itself. Unlike previous interstellar objects, this ice-rich comet seems to originate from the thick disk of the Milky Way,