NASA's interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS in stunning new imagery

New imagery from NASA shows a celestial outsider known as 3I/ATLAS as it travels through our solar system.

The NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) observatory discovered the object on July 1 of this year.

In years past, researchers relying only on ground-based observatories or Earth-orbiting spacecraft to track 3I/ATLAS's position, which only provides specific views of the anomalous object, according to LiveScience.

Newly released images of the interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

The object appears as an illuminated spot in the eagerly anticipated images – some also show the suspected comet's tail as a faint, elongated streak.

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NASA's previous imagery of 3I/ATLAS

NASA and the European Space Agency(ESA) have a number of telescope assets which have captured images of the interstellar object. They include: The Hubble, Webb, TESS, Swift, SPHEREx, Perseverance Mars rover, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Curiosity rover, Europa Clipper, Lucy, Psyche, Parker Solar Probe, PUNCH, and ESA/NASA’s SOHO and Juice.

Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS was first discovered in on July 1

According to NASA, comet 3I/ATLAS is only the third known object from outside our solar system to be found traveling through our celestial neighborhood, after comets 'Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019.

Because of the hyperbolic nature of the comet's orbital path, astronomers have classified it as an interstellar object, which means it doesn't travel in a closed orbit around the sun.

3I/ATLAS's path across the solar system was narrowed down "ten fold" by the ESA. The agency's Juice observer should be able to make additional observations.

On Dec. 19, the object is expected to make its closest approach, which will pose no threat to Earth. The comet will be within 170 million miles of Earth on that day — roughly twice the distance between Earth and the sun, according to LiveScience.

Just what is comet 3I/ATLAS?

3I/ATLAS made news earlier in July when it was confirmed to have originated outside Earth's solar system, which makes it just one of three known interstellar objects ever discovered in our cosmic neighborhood.

The object, which scientists estimate to be more than 12 miles wide, is whizzing at 37 miles per second relative to the sun on a trajectory that on Oct. 30 it was 130 million miles of Earth, according to NASA.

The interstellar visitor, though, was expected to only pick up speed – reaching as fast at 153,000 mph – as it continued its journey toward the sun.

CONTRIBUTING Eris Lagatta/USA TODAY