Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is set to reach its closest point to the sun on Wednesday (Oct. 29) at about 11:47 Universal Time (UT), Universe Today reports. The comet will reach about 1.36 astronomical units from the Sun – slightly beyond Earth’s orbital distance.
US space agency NASA said Comet 3I/ATLAS will fly just inside the orbit of Mars when it reaches perihelion – its closest point to the Sun – around October 30, 2025, at a distance of about 1.4 AU (130 million miles, or 210 million kilometers).
Since the comet will be positioned almost exactly opposite Earth on the far side of the Sun, scientists expect it will not be visible from Earth until sometime in November.
3I/ATLAS is only the third known visitor from beyond the Solar System, identified as interstellar due to its hyperbolic orbit that will not return around the Sun. Tracing its trajectory backward reveals that the comet apparently originated from deep interstellar space.
