Sometimes, "the universe comes to us," writes the European Space Agency — the third time now since 2017. What is it and are we prepared?

You can watch comet 3I/ATLAS live online tonight (July 3), thanks to the Virtual Telescope Project, which will livestream views beginning at 6:00 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT). The feed will showcase imagery from telescopes in Manciano, Italy, weather permitting. Tune in via Virtual Telescope's WebTV, YouTube channel or here on Space.com.

The third interstellar object detected has been named 3I/ATLAS and was discovered on July 1 from Chile. Astronomers from the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands are tracking it with several telescopes in Tenerife.