Scientists now say an interstellar comet discovered earlier this month could be one of the oldest that astronomers have ever encountered.

AN INTERSTELLAR space rock zooming through our solar system may be the oldest comet ever seen by humans, according to researchers. The mysterious cosmic object was discovered last week, and is

Kareta says that come October, when the comet gets closer to Earth, "under dark skies ... with a big telescope and some patience, maybe you might be able to see it." Which he says would be special because, "that might be the first time anyone has actually seen the light from an interstellar object with their own eyes."

The ATLAS (short for Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) is a NASA-funded program developed by the University of Hawaii. It incorporates data from four ground-based telescopes, two in Hawaii, one in Chile, and one in South Africa, to scan the entire sky twice a night, looking for asteroids and other impactors.