A rocky visitor from beyond our solar system is leaking water like a "fire hose running at full blast," a new study reports.

Using NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, scientists have for the first time detected the chemical fingerprint of water spilling from interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, only the third known object from another star system ever observed passing through our cosmic neighborhood.

Water is the universal yardstick of comet science, the baseline for measuring how sunlight drives a comet's activity and releases other gases. Detecting it in an interstellar visitor allows astronomers to compare 3I/ATLAS directly with comets native to our solar system, offering a rare glimpse into the chemistry of distant planetary systems.

"When we detect water — or even its faint ultraviolet

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