Astronomy See all topics Facebook Tweet Email Link Link Copied! Follow

A new image has revealed the clearest glimpse yet of an interstellar visitor zipping through our solar system.

The Hubble Telescope and its Wide Field Camera 3 got an incredible view of the comet named 3I/ATLAS , which came from beyond our solar system, on July 21 when the object was 277 million miles (445 million kilometers) from Earth.

In the image, a teardrop-shaped dust cocoon can be seen streaking from the comet’s icy nucleus. A comet’s nucleus is its solid core, made of ice, dust and rocks. When comets travel near stars such as the sun, heat causes them to release gas and dust, which creates their signature tails.

The venerable telescope is just one of many that are being used to track

See Full Page