If 31/ATLAS really was born in the thick disk, it might be the oldest comet ever spotted, at around 7 billion years old; that’s 3 billion years older than the Solar system. And the way it moves suspiciously up and down in the galactic plane is possibly indicative of an object having originated from and stayed in the disk for literal eons. If we’re lucky, it could give us an inside look at the formation of the early Milky Way.
