Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS to make its closest approach to Earth today | Here's how stargazers can spot it

This image, provided by NASA, shows the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas captured by the Hubble Space Telescope on Nov. 30, 2025, about 178 million miles (286 million kilometers) from Earth. (AP photo)

The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, a stray comet from another star, will make its closest approach to Earth on Friday, December 19, as it continues to hurtle through the solar system.

This will be the stray comet's last hurrah before racing back toward interstellar space, AP reported.

Discovered over the summer, the comet known as 3I/Atlas will pass within 167 million miles (269 million kilometers) of our planet on Friday, the closest it gets on its grand tour of the solar system.

NASA continues to aim its space telescopes at the visiting ice ball, estimated to be between 1,444 feet (440 meters) and 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) in size. But it’s fading as it exits, so now’s the time for backyard astronomers to catch it in the night sky with their telescopes.

The comet will come much closer to Jupiter in March, zipping within 33 million miles (53 million kilometers). It will be the mid-2030s before it reaches interstellar space, never to return, said Paul Chodas, director of NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, AP reported.

It’s only the third confirmed interstellar object ever recorded, joining the object 1I/ʻOumuamua and comet 2I/Borisov on a short known guest list. Scientists haven’t pinned down which star system the current visitor came from.

Interstellar comets like 3I/Atlas originate in star systems elsewhere in the Milky Way, while home-grown comets like Halley's hail from the icy fringes of our solar system.

A telescope in Hawaii discovered the first confirmed interstellar visitor in 2017. Two years later, an interstellar comet was spotted by a Crimean amateur astronomer. NASA’s sky-surveying Atlas telescope in Chile spotted comet 3I/Atlas in July while prowling for potentially dangerous asteroids.

Scientists believe the latest interloping comet, also harmless, may have originated in a star system much older than ours, making it a tantalizing target.

Avid stargazers can catch a glimpse of 3I/ATLAS on Friday by taking a peek at the predawn sky through a powerful pair of binoculars or backyard telescope, according to NASA. At that time, it should look like a glowing star in the east to northeast. It will appear underneath Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo.

“This could be your best bet to see this interstellar interloper,” says Chelsea Gohd, a science writer at in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in the agency’s skywatching tips for December.

If you’d rather not wait out in the cold or have crummy viewing conditions, you can follow along online through a livestream hosted by the Virtual Telescope Project, starting at 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Thursday, December 18, weather permitting.

Don’t worry if you can’t catch 3I/ATLAS when it nears Earth; the visitor should be visible to skywatchers with telescopes until spring, when it’ll pass by Jupiter. Soon after that, however, the comet will leave the solar system, never to return.