Update: On Wednesday (July 2), NASA confirmed that A11pl3Z is an interstellar object and gave it a new official name — 3I/ATLAS. The agency also revealed that the object is a comet, not an asteroid, and updated other information about its trajectory through the solar system. You can see the interstellar interloper for yourself in a live stream by the Virtual Telescope Project on Thursday (July 3).
Astronomers have spotted what they think might be an "interstellar object" hurtling through the solar system — and it's headed toward us. The visiting space object, potentially the third of its kind ever seen, will make its closest approach to the sun in around four months, before eventually leaving our cosmic neighborhood forever.
