interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS: Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS’ racing towards the Sun in a cosmic turning point: Will you be able to see the rare object from Earth?

Passing through our solar system, the mysterious interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS reached the Sun and attracted the attention of astronomers and sky observers. As the massive object called 3I/ATLAS makes its closest approach to our sun on Wednesday, many scientists believe it will begin to disintegrate like a normal comet under extreme heat, The Daily Mail reported. Discovered in July 2025 and coming from beyond our solar system, this celestial body does not pose any threat to the visitor’s Earth.

On Wednesday, the object will reach perihelion, coming within about 126 million miles of the sun, marking the halfway point of its passage through the solar system. Perihelion is the point in an object’s orbit where it is closest to the sun. Experts say that if 3I/ATLAS remains intact and moves away from the sun on its own, it could suggest something extraordinary. Harvard physicist Avi Loeb called today’s movement towards the sun the ‘acid test of 3I/ATLAS’.

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Can you see comet 3I/ATLAS?

According to a report on Space.Com, interstellar object 3I/ATLAS has moved into solar conjunction, making it temporarily invisible from Earth since the end of September. At this stage, the object passed behind the Sun, disappeared into its glare, and was out of view of all Earth-based and orbiting telescopes.
According to astronomers, 3I/ATLAS will not be visible again until late November or early December, when it is expected to reappear in Earth’s morning sky. This means that telescopes on Earth, telescopes orbiting the planet, and even instruments located at the L2 Lagrangian point (a fixed location in space directly opposite the Sun from the Earth) will miss the chance to observe the object at its closest approach to the Sun, known as perihelion.

“We cannot observe 3I/ATLAS from Earth at this opportune time, which raises the question of whether its orbit has been fine-tuned by extraterrestrial intelligence?” Loeb wrote about this in a blog post. The professor added that scientists will need months of observations to see how 3I/ATLAS responds when it reaches its closest point to the sun.

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Is 3I/ATLAS a strange comet?

Most studies of 3I/ATLAS have found it to be a strange comet from a completely foreign part of the galaxy. Researchers noted that 3I/ATLAS has a tail made of gas and dust, just like the icy comets we see all the time. Astronomers have linked a comet’s unusual chemical structure to its possible birthplace in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy. Its strange composition has led astronomers to investigate how such objects form and travel through interstellar space. Scientists will look for any strange behavior as it approaches the planet, including changes in the visitor’s path and speed after leaving the sun. The comet was observed emitting carbon dioxide gas, indicating that it may have formed under different conditions than most comets in our solar system. On December 19, 3I/ATLAS is expected to reach closest point to Earth, about 265 million miles away, and Loeb warned that this could be the point where an extraterrestrial vehicle launches probes to study our world.