Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS found to be unusually rich in methanol

New observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) reveal that interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS contains an exceptionally high amount of methanol, a type of alcohol. This methanol abundance exceeds that found in almost all known comets from our own solar system, suggesting that 3I/ATLAS formed under, or was exposed to, conditions very different from those experienced by most solar system comets. The findings offer a rare chemical fingerprint from another star system.