New Delhi, July 4 -- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has discovered a rare interstellar comet. It has been officially named 3I/ATLAS.

Comet 3I/ATLAS was discovered on July 1 and spotted by a Chile-based survey telescope named ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System).

According to Reuters, astronomers are tracking a newly spotted comet hailing from parts "unknown".

"It came from outside our solar system and right now, it's inside the orbit of Jupiter, and it is headed for its closes pass to the sun at the end of October," said Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer with NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).

NASA said that the comet originated from interstellar space (space between ...