For those of us who spent the last few months glancing nervously at the heavens, wondering if our latest celestial visitor was a harbinger of something more sinister, there is good news. The interstellar traveller known as 3I/ATLAS has officially completed its closest approach to Earth, and it did so without deploying an invading fleet or colliding with our fragile blue marble.
Last Friday, the cosmic wanderer reached its perigee at a distance of 168 million miles—roughly double the space between us and the Sun. This milestone marks a significant moment in the object's trajectory, which saw it travelling at a staggering speed of 137,000 miles per hour during its dash through the inner solar system.
