ATLAS, a NASA-funded asteroid warning system, first reported 3I/ATLAS on July 1, 2025, revealing the third known interstellar object. In July 2025, a telescope built to warn Earth about dangerous asteroids found something it was not specifically hunting for: an object that did not belong to the Solar System at all. The instrument was part of ATLAS, the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact L... [9215 chars]