By Euronews with AP
Published on
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The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the best picture yet of a high-speed comet visiting our solar system from another star.
NASA and the European Space Agency released the latest photos Thursday.
Discovered last month by a telescope in Chile, the comet known as 3I-Atlas is only the third known interstellar object to pass our way. It poses no threat to Earth.
Astronomers originally estimated the size of its icy core at tens of kilometres across, but Hubble’s observations have narrowed it down to no more than 5.6 kilometres. It could even be as small as 320 meters, according to scientists.
The comet is hurtling our way at 209,000 kilometres per hour, but will veer closer to Mars than Earth, keeping a safe distance from both.
It was 446 million kilometres away when photographed by Hubble a couple weeks ago.
The orbiting telescope revealed a teardrop-shaped plume of dust around the nucleus as well as traces of a dusty tail.
