New photos, including a striking technicolor timelapse, show off the newly discovered interstellar object 3I/ATLAS as it shoots toward us through the solar system.

Given 3I/ATLAS' highly eccentric orbit, this will be its one and only visit to our solar system, as its trajectory does not loop back around the sun. That's why astronomers around the world are using a wide variety of telescopes to observe the comet during its brief visit, before it returns to interstellar space.

Comet 3I/ATLAS is expected to make its closest pass by the Sun on Oct. 30, when it will fly 130 million miles inside the orbit of Mars. It comes closest to Earth in December, when it is 170 million miles away. Because of its odd orbit, it's never coming back.

New simulations have narrowed down where the newly discovered interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS likely came from, revealing it could be more than 3 billion years older than the solar system.

However, new research has shown this potentially "water ice-rich" visitor could be even more extraordinary than initially believed. 3I/ATLAS could be around 3 billion years older than our 4.5 billion-year-old solar system and thus any comet ever before observed.