The NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile recently captured rare footage of the visitor known as 3I/ATLAS — only the third interstellar object discovered. What’s more impressive: The observatory recorded the video a full 10 days before the comet was officially identified by NASA 's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System.

A newly discovered interstellar comet, 3I/ATLAS, has sparked debate in the scientific community after Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb and his team proposed a speculative idea-that it might be an alien spacecraft.

Professor Avi Loeb said there are clear signs that the comet known as "3I/ATLAS" could be an alien craft. "We should put all possibilities on the table that it's a rock, a comet, or something else until we get the evidence,