3I/Atlas is an instellar comet. The 3I designation indicates it's the third object detected to come from outside our solar system. Atlas is the name of the network of telescopes that first detected it and was led by the University of Hawaii.
Since the discovery of the comet, there has been a lot of nonsense in the mainstream tabloid media and on social media claiming that the object is not a comet but an alien spaceship. Much of this came from Avi Loeb, a very respected astrophysicist who, for whatever reason, kept saying it might be a spaceship. It isn't, it's an interstellar comet, only the second one we've ever detected. (https://atlas.fallingstar.com/)
Its orbit took it behind the sun from our perspective, and as expected, it recently reappeared. Gemini North, an observatory on Mauna Kea, invited the public to observe this relatively unique object.
Gemini North Color Images Reveal Greenish Glow of Comet 3I/ATLAS
"Community observing program Shadow the Scientists took the public on a second tour of the famous interstellar visitor with live observations from the Gemini North telescope control room in Hawai‘i"
https://www.gemini.edu/news/press-releases/noirlab2532
Since the discovery of the comet, there has been a lot of nonsense in the mainstream tabloid media and on social media claiming that the object is not a comet but an alien spaceship. Much of this came from Avi Loeb, a very respected astrophysicist who, for whatever reason, kept saying it might be a spaceship. It isn't, it's an interstellar comet, only the second one we've ever detected. (https://atlas.fallingstar.com/)
Its orbit took it behind the sun from our perspective, and as expected, it recently reappeared. Gemini North, an observatory on Mauna Kea, invited the public to observe this relatively unique object.
Gemini North Color Images Reveal Greenish Glow of Comet 3I/ATLAS
"Community observing program Shadow the Scientists took the public on a second tour of the famous interstellar visitor with live observations from the Gemini North telescope control room in Hawai‘i"
https://www.gemini.edu/news/press-releases/noirlab2532