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.

NASA has discovered a new interstellar comet that's currently located about 420 million miles away from Earth. The space agency spotted the quick-moving object with the Atlas telescope in Chile on Tuesday and confirmed it was a comet from another star system. The new interstellar comet's official name is 3I/ATLAS.

The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) is a small satellite already orbiting Earth. IBEX has special instruments gathering data to create the first map of the boundary of interstellar space. NASA is preparing to launch the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) in 2025.