Experts have detailed the exact date the mysterious object aiming at Earth that Harvard scientist claims is 'not natural' will be closest to our planet.
3I/ATLAS was first spotted tumbling towards our solar system back in July, by the NASA-funded ATLAS survey telescope at Río Hurtado, Chile.
It's only the third known object to originate from interstellar space - meaning it came from beyond our own solar system and true realms of possibility.
Scientists ultimately came to that conclusion because the object was traveling too fast to be bound by the Sun's gravity, at more than 41 miles per second.
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The anomaly was previously described as ‘possibly hostile’ amid fears it could wreak havoc on planet Earth.
While those fears have been eased in recent times, scientists have now detailed an exact date the comet will be nearest to Earth.
So, you're going to want to mark you calendars for December 19, 2025, when the comet will be roughly 270 million kilometers away from us. Don't worry, that is a safe distance away from Earth.
In fact, 3I/ATLAS has been closer to the Sun than it has been to us on Earth, passing as close to 210 million kilometers away, inside the orbit of Mars, just a matter of days ago on October 30.
As scientists continue to monitor the comet, they have been left baffled by some elements of it, including the speed at which 3I/ATLAS is brightening.
"The reason for 3I’s rapid brightening, which far exceeds the brightening rate of most Oort cloud comets at similar r [radial distance], remains unclear," wrote Qicheng Zhang, of Lowell Observatory and Karl Battams of the US Naval Research Laboratory, in a paper posted to arXiv.
The researchers have proposed a few theories - the unusual flare-up could be caused by the comet’s speed and trajectory, or maybe something more exotic about its chemical makeup.
Experts added: "Oddities in nucleus properties like composition, shape, or structure - which might have been acquired from its host system or over its long interstellar journey - may likewise contribute.
"Without an established physical explanation, the outlook for 3I’s postperihelion behavior remains uncertain, and a plateau in brightness - or even a brief continuation of its preperihelion brightening - appears as plausible as rapid fading past perihelion.
"Continued observations may help provide a more definitive explanation for the comet’s behavior."
Scientists will continue to monitor 3I/ATLAS in the months to come.
Topics: NASA, Science, Space, World News
Callum Jones