The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has confirmed an interstellar object is passing through our solar system.
The object is a comet hailing from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, and is only the third of its kind ever seen, according to Live Science.
The comet is officially named 3I/ATLAS and is currently about 420 million miles away, according to NASA.
The NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System survey telescope in Rio Hurtado was the first to find the comet on July 1.
The comet will be visible to ground telescopes through September. But it will then pass too close to the sun to observe.
In December, the comet is expected to reappear on the other side of the sun and become visible again.
NASA said that the comet poses no threat to Earth and will maintain a minimum distance of 150 million miles from Earth.
The last time an object like this was spotted in our solar system was when the comet 2I/Borisov sailed through in 2019. Before that, the asteroid ‘Oumuamua became the first official interstellar object to be seen in the solar system.
The comet’s size and physical properties are still being investigated around the world, according to NASA.
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