Overview
- Closest approach occurs on December 19 at about 06:00 GMT, when 3I/ATLAS will be roughly 270 million kilometers from Earth with no impact risk.
- The object is the third confirmed interstellar visitor and follows a hyperbolic trajectory that will carry it back out of the Solar System.
- Viewing will require telescopes before dawn in many locations, especially toward the constellation Leo, with livestreams led by the Virtual Telescope Project beginning around 11 p.m. EST on December 18.
- An International Asteroid Warning Network campaign running November 27 to January 27 coordinates global astrometry, imaging and spectroscopy during this prime window.
- JWST, Hubble and major ground observatories report an active comet with an unusually CO2‑dominated coma and atypical dynamics, including ~16‑hour brightness cycles and sunward jets, while mainstream experts continue to assess it as a natural object.