Interstellar comet 3I ATLAS reaches its closest point to Earth on 19 December 2025, passing about 1.8 astronomical units away, roughly 270 million km. Astronomers say it stays far beyond Mars.

NASA and ESA say the object poses no threat and is already heading outward from the Sun after perihelion in late October. Scientists classify it as a natural comet on a hyperbolic path from outside our solar system.