A rare interstellar comet — only the third ever confirmed to enter our solar system — was photographed last week, closely approaching Mars, the European Space Agency said Tuesday.

The images taken on Friday by two Mars orbiters show a bright, fuzzy white dot of the comet, also known as 3I/ATLAS , appearing to move against a backdrop of distant stars as it was about 18,641,135 miles away from Mars. The comet poses no threat to Earth, NASA has previously said.

"This was a very challenging observation for the instrument," Nick Thomas, principal investigator of the CaSSIS camera, said in a statement . "The comet is around 10,000 to 100,000 times fainter than our usual target."

ExoMars TGO image of comet 3I/ATLAS European Space Agency

Since its discovery in July, Comet 3I/ATLAS has

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