The comet will come much closer to Jupiter in March, zipping within 33 million miles. It will be the mid-2030s before it reaches interstellar space, never to return, said Paul Chodas, director of NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies.

The NASA-funded ATLAS survey telescope in Chile found the comet on July 1. The comet was not visible as it raced behind the sun, getting as close as 130 million miles, for about a month before reappearing in December. After it passes Earth on Friday, the comet is expected to journey back out of the solar system.

The truth is that, following NASA’s press conference, this hypothesis has been completely ruled out; however, experts emphasize that, coming from outside the Solar System, we are facing a celestial body that behaves in a unique and anomalous way. Research and the release of images will continue as new data is obtained.