CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Hold onto your telescopes, stargazers! NASA has just unveiled an astonishing discovery—a brand new interstellar comet has ventured into our cosmic neighborhood!

Using the powerful Atlas telescope in Chile, NASA spotted this fast-moving object earlier this week, confirming it as a comet originating from another star system. This marks it as the third known interstellar visitor to glimmer in our solar system, and thankfully, it poses no threat to Earth!

Meet the Newcomer: 3I/Atlas!

Dubbed 3I/Atlas, this icy snowball is currently situated a staggering 416 million miles (670 million kilometers) from the Sun, comfortably hanging out near Jupiter. Mark your calendars: in October, it will make its closest flyby of the Sun, skimming between the orbits of Mars and Earth—though it will be a safe 150 million miles (240 million kilometers) away from us.

Astronomers worldwide are keeping a close eye on 3I/Atlas, meticulously studying its size and shape. If you’re eager to catch a glimpse, this comet will be observable through telescopes until September, before it inches closer to the Sun and then re-emerges in December after its solar swing.

A Legacy of Interstellar Visitors!

But 3I/Atlas isn’t the first celestial tourist to grace our skies. The inaugural interstellar traveler, known as Oumuamua (Hawaiian for 'scout'), was spotted in 2017. Initially thought to be an asteroid, this elongated object later exhibited signs of being a comet.

Then came 21/Borisov, the second interstellar wanderer, discovered in 2019 by a keen-eyed amateur astronomer. Like Oumuamua, it is also classified as a comet.

With each new discovery, the universe keeps revealing its mysteries. Keep looking up—who knows what wonders await us in the cosmos!