BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Comet 3I/ATLAS is the talk of social media and the astronomy community right now.

Western Kentucky University astronomy professor Gordon Emslie is also excited about the comet.

He and astronomers across the world are tracking what is said to be the third known object from outside our solar system to pass through our celestial neighborhood.

Emslie said, “This is exciting because of its rarity. It’s so unusual to have anything pass the close.”

The comet will pass safely by Earth, staying about 170 million miles away. That’s almost twice as far as the Sun is from us. It’s expected to come closest to the Sun on Oct. 30, just inside Mars’ orbit.

Emslie said, “It is whizzing by quite close to the Earth. In about a month, it’ll come closer than Mars.”

According to Ems

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