The newest visitor is 416 million miles (670 million kilometers) from the sun, out near Jupiter. NASA said the comet will make its closest approach to the sun in October, scooting between the orbits of Mars and Earth — but closer to the red planet than us at a safe 150 million miles (240 million kilometers) away.

Experts have confirmed that the mysterious object hurtling towards us, previously dubbed A11pl3Z, is an "interstellar object." The cosmic interloper, officially named 3I/ATLAS, is only the third of its kind ever seen — and will shoot past Earth later this year.

July 3 (UPI) -- NASA discovered the third interstellar comet through a survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile. The interstellar comet first observed on Tuesday by NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Alert System telescope, or ATLAS, has been officially named 3I/ATLAS.