A mysterious interstellar comet — just the third such object ever confirmed to have entered our solar system — streaked past Mars last week.

A spacecraft in orbit around the red planet had a front-row seat and snapped new images of the comet, known as 3I/ATLAS , on Friday. The photos, released Tuesday by the European Space Agency , show a fuzzy white dot moving against the vast expanse of space.

The bright dot is the center of the comet, made up of a solid nucleus of ice, rock and dust. The nucleus is typically shrouded in a glowing cloud of dust and gas, known as the coma.

Since comet 3I/ATLAS was first detected in July , it has attracted intense interest among astronomers and amateur space enthusiasts. The object has even fueled outlandish theories that it could be extraterres

See Full Page