First reported in July 2025, Comet 3I/ATLAS is only the third known visitor from outside our solar system, which, in the words of NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, “makes it fascinating, exciting, and scientifically very important.” Astronomer Willem Hoogendam will explain why.

Willem is a fourth-year National Science Foundation Fellow pursuing a PhD in Astronomy at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa's Institute for Astronomy. His research centers on transient astronomy, with a focus on supernovae, tidal disruption events, and, most recently, interstellar objects. His work has been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Astrophysical Journal, and the Astronomical Journal.