The interstellar comet 3I-ATLAS is now close to the sun and about halfway through its journey in our solar system.
The comet has given researchers from Arizona and across the globe insights into how solar systems are made.
Scientists can find it incredibly difficult to understand the chemical compositions of planets and comets around other stars because they’re faint in comparison.
So when a comet like 3I-ATLAS came into our solar system, researchers jumped at the opportunity to get a closer look to see what this interloper is made of.
“Every time we get a better picture of what other planetary systems look like, it helps us test our models and test our understanding of what did that protoplanetary disk that all of our solar system formed out of, what did that really look like," said Kat Volk, a senior scientist with Planetary Science Institute in Tucson.
She says it's is similar to our own comets, and is made largely of ice and carbon dioxide.
Right now the comet is behind the sun and not visible from Earth, so NASA will also be using a Mars rover to keep track of it.
""It's just human nature to want to know, like, are we normal or are we really weird? and also it's a good way to test, like, do we actually understand how the solar system formed?" Volk said.
Volk says backyard observers will be able to see the comet in December, before it goes dark sometime next year.
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