Space scientists say they are preparing a comet interceptor spaceship as the third interstellar object ever detected was spotted this week. A mysterious object the size of Manhattan was spotted by astronomers hurtling through our Solar System at extraordinary speed.

Late in the evening on July 1, a telescope in Chile that is part of the global, NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) picked up on a new moving dot in the sky, an object traveling past the orbit of Jupiter.

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