On October 29, Comet 3I/ATLAS reached its closest point to the Sun.

This point, known as perihelion, was around 210 million kilometres from the Sun, or 1.4 times the distance between the Sun and Earth, and it was on the opposite side of the Sun to Earth.

This means the Sun has been blocking the comet from our view ( from Earth ). There are already reports it's been detected again using ground-based telescopes.

The comet is the third interstellar object (hence the "3I") we've detected flying through our Solar System.

When it was first detected on July 1 2025 by the Asteroid Terrestrial Last Alert System (or "ATLAS"), one of the first questions people asked was "but is it aliens?".

This isn't the first time the alien question has come up in the context of a new astronomical

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