NASA has discovered an interstellar comet that's wandered into our backyard. The space agency spotted the object with the sky-surveying Atlas telescope in Chile earlier this week, and has confirmed it was a comet from another star system.

Experts have confirmed that the mysterious object hurtling towards us, previously dubbed A11pl3Z, is an "interstellar object." The cosmic interloper, officially named 3I/ATLAS, is only the third of its kind ever seen — and will shoot past Earth later this year.

On July 1, the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey telescope reported the discovery of A11pl3Z, an object whose orbit looked like it came from another star. Now we know that this is indeed the case.