Recent observations suggest that 3I/ATLAS could be around eight billion years old, making it potentially the oldest interstellar object ever observed and providing a rare glimpse into ancient planetary system material.

The Milky Way galaxy is estimated to contain between a hundred million trillion to a trillion trillion interstellar objects, which are the most common macroscopic objects in the galaxy, yet they are rarely detected due to their small size, darkness, and high velocity.

Upcoming surveys like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) are expected to dramatically increase detection rates, potentially discovering between six and fifty-one interstellar objects over the next decade.

Interstellar objects such as 'Oumuamua, Borisov, and 3I/ATLAS regularly pass through our solar system, with 3I/ATLAS currently on a hyperbolic orbit indicating it is not gravitationally bound to the sun, confirming their interstellar origin.

These objects are typically rocky planetesimals ejected from their original star systems, and studying them offers valuable insights into the composition, chemical evolution, and history of other planetary systems and the galaxy.

Current efforts to study 3I/ATLAS involve observations from ground-based telescopes, space observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble, and other spacecraft, offering a rare opportunity to analyze an interstellar visitor up close.