July 3 (UPI) -- NASA discovered the third interstellar comet through a survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile. The interstellar comet first observed on Tuesday by NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Alert System telescope, or ATLAS, has been officially named 3I/ATLAS .

NASA has discovered the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system, but the icy snowball object poses no threat to Earth.

The newly discovered interstellar visitor is just the third of its kind and fascinates astronomers who hope to learn from it about galaxies far, far away.