NASA telescope spots the building blocks for life spewing out of comet 3I/ATLAS

Four images arranged in a square show a red, blue, green and yellow tint to similar photographs of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, a glowing ball of light in the middle of each of the four images. The images from top left to bottom right are labeled as: dust, water, organics and carbon dioxide.

The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS shed the building blocks of life as it flew past Earth last year, according to new data from NASA's SPHEREx space telescope.

From its position in orbit, SPHEREx watched the rare interstellar visitor swing around the sun and make its closest approach to Earth in December, before the comet began its long journey back out of our solar system.