Editor's note, Dec. 19 at 10:00 a.m. ET: Comet 3I/ATLAS officially passed its closest point to Earth last night and is zooming away from us for good. However, due to rainy conditions in Italy, the Virtual Telescope Project live stream was postponed until 11 p.m. EST on Friday, Dec. 19 (0400 GMT on Dec. 20). Try to catch the free webcast here tonight. You can still see the comet through a decent backyard telescope, as well.
Comet 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object ever detected by astronomers, will make its closest approach to Earth overnight between Thursday and Friday (Dec. 18 to 19), when it gets to just 168 million miles (270 million kilometers) from our planet. It poses no threat to Earth.
