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Interstellar comet 3I/Atlas, which has captured the imagination of the public worldwide, will make its closest approach to Earth on Friday, December 19, offering astronomers a rare opportunity to observe the extraordinary visitor from another galaxy.
The third confirmed interstellar object ever recorded, 3I/Atlas, will come no closer than 269 million kilometers from Earth, nearly twice the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).
Scientists emphasize that the comet poses no danger to Earth or any other planet as it passes through the Inner Solar System.
This comet, first seen on July 1 by the Atlas (Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alarm System) telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile, has caused a great deal of interest online and has fueled many theories, including the idea that it may have been sent by aliens.
Interstellar comets are extremely rare, foreign objects to our galaxy that carry valuable data about the formation of worlds far beyond our Solar System. Observing one of these objects from such a close distance is an exciting opportunity for astronomers to study its coma, or the bright halo of gas and dust released as the comet is heated by the sun.
This is an extraordinary opportunity to better understand how comets and planets form around other stars in the Universe.
Scientists have already captured unprecedented images of 3I/ATLAS using ground-based telescopes, including ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray telescope. The first images of an interstellar comet observed in X-ray light revealed a diffuse X-ray glow around the comet's nucleus, clearing up a long-standing mystery about whether interstellar comets glow in X-rays like comets in our Solar System. Unfortunately for stargazers, 3I/ATLAS's trajectory is still too far from Earth to be seen with the naked eye. The good news is that at its closest approach, 3I/ATLAS can be spotted in the pre-dawn sky, even with a small telescope. According to NASA, it will remain visible until the spring of 2026, appearing as a slightly brighter star.
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