NASA on Wednesday released new images of an interstellar comet, just the third visitor ever confirmed from elsewhere in the galaxy, which show the object as a bright point of light surrounded by a blurry halo of gas and dust.

In the long-awaited photos, the comet, dubbed 3I/ATLAS , mostly appears as an illuminated dot, but some images also reveal its tail as a faint, elongated smudge.

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NASA / Goddard / SwRI / JHU-APL NASA / Goddard / SwRI / JHU-APL

Comet 3I/ATLAS was first detected in July , sparking a flurry of interest among scientists and in amateur astronomy circles. Much of the intrigue stems from the extremely rare chance to get a relatively up-close view of an interstellar object .

The new images

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