Friday, Dec. 19 is the day that astronomers, amateur stargazers and alien conspiracy theorists alike have been waiting for: Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is as close to Earth as it will ever get.
The strange interloper in our solar system has for months attracted no shortage of public fascination as it whizzed its way first past Mars, and then the sun. Now, more than five months since it was first discovered, 3I/ATLAS has made its closest approach to Earth.
But lest you think that an extraterrestrial invasion is upon us, know that the comet still is not coming within about 170 million miles of