A comet hurtling through the solar system from interstellar space is exactly what it appears to be, NASA officials said Wednesday, moving to quash a wave of online speculation.

At a news conference, scientists released new spacecraft images of Comet 3I/ATLAS and described a full-court press to photograph the object before it disappears for good. NASA has pointed an array of observatories at the comet — including the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescope, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Lucy and Psyche missions — to capture as much data as possible while it remains within view.

Conspiracy theories flourished during the federal government shutdown, some claiming the comet was alien technology. The pause in federal communications let rumors spread unchecked, said Amit Kshatriya, NA

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