Never-before-seen NASA images of comet 3I/ATLAS will be released on Wednesday (November 19).

Earthlings will have to wait a few more days to see the clearest images yet of NASA’s interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS.

The space agency just announced that it will hold a live news conference call on Wednesday (November 19th) at 3pm ET. At the conference, NASA scientists and administrators will share and discuss never-before-seen images of interstellar comets taken by telescopes and spacecraft over the past month or so.

These images have not yet been released to the public because the majority of NASA employees were furloughed during the U.S. government shutdown from October 1 to November 12, and NASA was unable to communicate with the public.

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During this period, Comet 3I/ATLAS passed several major milestones on its one-way trip through the solar system, so it was an unfortunate time for NASA to be silent. On October 29, the interstellar comet passed its closest approach to the Sun and entered its brightest and most active phase, as the ice on its surface melted and began to sublimate (change from solid to gas).

And earlier, on October 3, just days after the government shutdown began, the comet made its closest approach to Mars, passing within just 19 million miles (30 million kilometers) of the planet and the NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) probe fleet stationed there. Although that may sound comically far away, this is the closest we’ll likely get to an interstellar interloper. According to NASA, 3I/ATLAS will only be within 170 million miles (270 million km) of Earth when it makes its closest approach to Earth on December 19.

Closest view of 3I/ATLAS to date

On October 7, ESA released the closest images of a comet ever taken, taken by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Mars Express Orbiter. But both of these probes are designed to observe the surface of Mars just a few hundred miles below, rather than tracking high-speed objects millions of miles away. Although the comet appears as a bright, flickering blur in ESA images, 3I/ATLAS confirmed that it observed a distinct cloud of ionized gas (coma), a characteristic of natural comets.

By comparing data from the Mars rover with observations from telescopes on Earth, ESA scientists were also able to better triangulate the comet’s exact location and significantly narrow down its path through the solar system.

During the press conference, NASA plans to share images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Vehicle’s HiRISE camera and observations from other telescopes in the days before and after the comet’s approach to Mars, according to NASA’s latest announcement.

The livestream will be hosted on the agency’s website, as well as YouTube and Amazon Prime. The public is invited to submit questions via the social media hashtag #AskNASA, some of which may be featured on the live broadcast.

Comet 3I/ATLAS was discovered in late June and confirmed to be an interstellar object in early July. It originates from an unknown star system far beyond our own and is only the third object of its kind ever discovered. Many mysteries remain about its nature and origin, and dozens of observations are expected to be made from telescopes on Earth and in space as the comet heads towards its closest approach to Earth next month. A probe near Jupiter will also observe the comet’s final exit from the solar system early next year.