Comet 3I/ATLASthe 3rd interstellar things ever discovered by astronomers, will make its closest method to Earth overnight in between Thursday and Friday( Dec. 18 to 19 ), when it gets to simply 168 million miles (270 million kilometers )from our world. It presents no hazard to Earth.

The accurate minute will come at 1 a.m. EST(0600 GMT)on Dec. 19, according to Space.comStill simply under two times the range from Earth as the sun– something that will prevent sensational pictures from huge telescopes– it’s a special chance to glance a things from another star system. Found in July 2025, it is available in the wake of 1I/’Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019.

Any planetarium app– such as Sky Tonight, Sky Guide, Stellarium and SkySafari 7 Pro– will likewise have 3I/ATLAS in its database. That will be valuable to discover it aesthetically. Technically, it shows up in big astronomy field glasses, however at magnitude 11, it’s going to look “like a small, somewhat out-of-focus star,” according to Sky in the evening

A much better method to see the comet is with a medium-to-large telescope of about 12 inches, according to NASAthrough which observers might identify a faint, fuzzy spot of greenish light near to the brilliant star Regulus in Leo and a fainter buddy, called Rho Leonis.

In the meantime, huge telescopes in the world and in area will continue to monitor it– some from much closer ranges than we’ll get. Simply today, NASA launched brand-new ultraviolet images of the comet taken with its Europa Clipper spacecraft from approximately 102 million miles (164 million km) away, closing the range from Earth by about a 3rd. Stay tuned for more NASA image releases after the close method.