Comet 3I/ATLAS is as close to Earth as possible and moving smoothly away

Comet 3I/ATLAS, located beyond the solar system, has reached its closest point to the Earth this Friday and continues its trajectory without incident, according to the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 

According to the scientific center, the object has crossed that point from Moscow at 07:16 local time (04:16 GMT) and is 268,918,000 kilometers from our planet, a huge number on the Earth scale, but small in interstellar terms.

Scientists have taken advantage of the event to ironize the theories that emerged since the discovery of the comet, some of which claimed it was a supposed alien ship. From the lab they have pointed out that during the day you could hear "the most insane fantasies" and the idea that the celestial body had changed course to Earth. However, they have stressed that there is no evidence to support these hypotheses, and have recalled, with sarcasm, that they have not reported the landing of Aliens.

According to Russian astronomers, the future trajectory of 3I/ATLAS will lead him to fly over Jupiter around March 16, about 53 million kilometers away, before he finally moves away and disappears from the sight of the Earth's telescopes.

This is the third interestingly intercepted object in the solar system, and its passage gave rise to public speculation, partly fueled by a lack of information during the shutdown of the US government, which kept NASA silent. After resuming official activity, the US space agency dispelled rumors that 3I/ATLAS is simply a comet.