After teasing a major announcement , NASA has released a slate of new images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, including the closest observations obtained to date.

Across the Solar System, from observatories studying the Sun to spacecraft on the way to the asteroid belt, a slew of NASA-supported missions have managed to capture the visiting object as it moves through the Solar System.

The closest observations, however, came from Mars , which was within a cosmic whisker of 3I/ATLAS; specifically, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), currently surveying the red planet from orbit .

Related: Don't Panic! 3I/ATLAS Isn't an Alien Death Probe, But It Is Wildly Unusual

"Comet 3I/ATLAS has … arrived at its closest point to the Sun when the Earth was on the wrong side for us to conven

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