Hubble Space Telescope takes best picture yet of the comet visiting from another solar system

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the best picture yet of a high-speed comet visiting our solar system from another star.

NASA and the European Space Agency released the latest photos on Thursday.

Discovered last month by a telescope in Chile, the comet known as 3I-Atlas is only the third known interstellar object to pass our way and poses no threat to Earth.

Astronomers originally estimated the size of its icy core at tens of kilometers across, but Hubble's observations have narrowed it down to no more than 5.6 kilometers. It could even be as small as 320 meters, according to scientists.

"Though the Hubble images put tighter constraints on the size of the nucleus compared to previous ground-based estimates, the solid heart of the comet presently cannot be directly seen, even by Hubble," said NASA.

The comet is hurtling our way at 209,000 kilometers per hour, but will veer closer to Mars than Earth, keeping a safe distance from both. It was 446 million kilometers away when photographed by Hubble a couple of weeks ago. The orbiting telescope revealed a teardrop-shaped plume of dust around the nucleus as well as traces of a dusty tail.