NASA on Wednesday released new images of an interstellar comet, just the third visitor ever confirmed from elsewhere in the galaxy, which show the object as a bright point of light surrounded by a blurry halo of gas and dust.

In the long-awaited photos, the comet, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, mostly appears as an illuminated dot, but some images also reveal its tail as a faint, elongated smudge.

Comet 3I/ATLAS was first detected in July, sparking a flurry of interest among scientists and in amateur astronomy circles. Much of the intrigue stems from the extremely rare chance to get a relatively up-close view of an interstellar object.

The new images were taken by various NASA spacecraft from late September through mid-October, as the mysterious comet swung through the inner solar system. They were not made public until now because of the government shutdown, which put work at NASA and other federal agencies on hold.

The NASA missions behind the new photos include its sun-watching PUNCH satellites, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission and the Perseverance Rover on the surface of Mars.

Before 3I/ATLAS, the only two objects ever confirmed to have entered our solar system from someplace beyond in the galaxy were the cigar-shaped Oumuamua in 2017 and comet 2I/Borisov in 2019.

While 3I/ATLAS’s visit to our cosmic neighborhood has fueled wild theories that the comet could be extraterrestrial technology or an alien spacecraft, there has been no scientific evidence to support such claims. In Wednesday’s briefing, NASA officials said all observations so far have been consistent with what researchers know about comets.

“We certainly haven’t seen any techno signatures or anything from it that would lead us to believe it was anything other than a comet,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

Still, the object’s interstellar origin means it has intriguing characteristics that could yield new insights into star systems beyond our own, according to Fox.

“It’s the differences that are so tantalizing for us,” she said. “It could be from something that existed before our own solar system. That is so cool.”

In the weeks ahead, scientists will have more opportunities to study 3I/ATLAS and better characterize its features, including its appearance, speed, chemical makeup and possible place of origin.

“This is a new scientific opportunity, and it’s a new window into the makeups and histories of other solar systems,” said Tom Statler, NASA’s lead scientist for solar system small bodies. “We’re just beginning to learn about these types of objects and figure out what are the right questions we should ask about them.”

But tracing where the comet came from remains difficult, Statler said.

Comet 3I/ATLAS reached its closest point to the sun at the end of October and is now continuing its journey through the inner solar system. Because of its proximity to the sun in recent weeks, it was not visible to ground-based telescopes, but NASA expects the object to emerge into view again on the other side of the sun by early December.

On Dec. 19, 3I/ATLAS will fly by Earth. It does not pose a threat to our planet, according to NASA; the comet will remain at a safe distance of roughly 170 million miles during the rendezvous.

Statler said the James Webb Space Telescope is expected to observe the comet in December, and ground-based telescopes such as the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii will have forthcoming images of it, as well.

The images that NASA released Wednesday join a growing collection taken by various spacecraft throughout the solar system. The European Space Agency in early October released images of 3I/ATLAS from its ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, which is in orbit around Mars. The photos showed a bright white dot moving against the vast expanse of space.

The probe, jointly operated by ESA and Russia’s Federal Space Agency, spotted the comet as it buzzed by the red planet. At the time, it was around 18.6 million miles from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, according to ESA.

NASA is also still processing additional data gathered from its fleet of spacecraft since the beginning of October.

“There will be more to come,” Statler said. “Not all of the data have been downlinked yet through NASA’s Deep Space Network, and there are more observations still in works.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com