In a rare and haunting display from the depths of the cosmos, the galaxy's latest wanderer has just posed for its final close-up before slipping back into the infinite dark. The European Space Agency's (ESA) XMM-Newton mission recently managed to capture a portrait of the interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS on 3 December from a staggering distance of 283 million kilometres. This celestial snapshot arrives at a pivotal moment, as the comet prepares for its closest approach to Earth this Friday, 19 December, at exactly 06:02 Universal Time.
