Scientists have provided a chilling update on the mysterious ‘interstellar object’ that is racing through our solar system. 

Using data from the Vera C Rubin Observatory, experts have revealed just how big the object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, really is. 

According to their analysis, the object measures roughly seven miles (11.2km) in diameter. 

That’s even bigger than Mount Everest – making 3I/ATLAS the largest interstellar object ever spotted. 

Professor Avi Loeb, a theoretical physicist and cosmologist from Harvard University, has suggested that the object could be an alien spacecraft. 

However, not everyone is so convinced. 

Chris Lintott, an astronomer at the University of Oxford, told Live Science: ‘Any suggestion that it’s artificial is nonsense on stilts.’

He added that these claims are an ‘insult to the exciting work going on to understand this object.’

The images of the comet were actually snapped by Vera C Rubin before it was officially discovered. 

However, since it was identified on July 1, scientists have scoured back through the data to find out more about the mysterious object. 

In a new study, published on arXiv, more than 200 researchers have confirmed the likely size of the comet’s main body, known as its nucleus. 

Their analysis suggests that the nucleus has a radius of around 3.5 miles (5.6km). 

That translates to a diameter – or width – of about seven miles (11.2km). 

To put that into perspective, that’s even bigger than Mount Everest (5.4 miles), and almost twice the size of Mount Kilimanjaro (3.6 miles)!

That makes 3I/ATLAS the largest of the three confirmed interstellar objects discovered to date. 

For comparison, ‘Oumuamua, which was discovered in 2017, was believed to be around 0.2 miles (0.4km) wide, while Comet Borisov, discovered in 2019, was roughly 0.6 miles (1km) wide. 

Read More Here