The NASA-funded ATLAS survey telescope in Chile found the comet on July 1. The comet was not visible as it raced behind the sun, getting as close as 130 million miles, for about a month before reappearing in December. After it passes Earth on Friday, the comet is expected to journey back out of the solar system.

Southwest Research Institute's novel Compact Dual Ion Composition Experiment (CoDICE) instrument aboard NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft has successfully collected first-light data.

NASA data reveals the truth about interstellar object 3I/ATLAS as it reaches its closest approach to Earth this Friday.

In most comets, the tail points away from the Sun, but this strange 'anti-tail' of 3I/ATLAS has left scientists puzzled.

Discovered on July 1 by the NASA-funded ATLAS telescope in Chile, 3I/ATLAS is only the third confirmed visitor from another solar system, following 1I/'Oumuamua in 2017 and comet 2I/Borisov in 2019.

Physics sets unforgiving limits on how fast anything can move, yet the same laws also leave surprising room for creative ways to cross the gulf between stars. The real question is not whether the universe bans interstellar journeys outright,