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.

The space rock 3I/ATLAS is only the third confirmed interstellar object discovered by astronomers, following 'Oumuamua and the comet Borisov. While astronomers are still busily collecting data on the new discovery,