A NASA space telescope known as NEOWISE first spotted the icy rock, officially called C/2020 F3, on March 27. The comet will be visible to skywatchers here on Earth through mid-August.
"From its infrared signature, we can tell that it is about 3 miles across, and by combining the infrared data with visible-light images, we can tell that the comet's nucleus is covered with sooty, dark particles left over from its formation near the birth of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago," said Joseph Masiero, NEOWISE deputy principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement.
Be sure to take a look at the celestial visitor over the next few weeks, if you get the chance: It won't be back in our neighborhood for 700 thousand years, as it takes that long to complete its journey around the sun, NASA said.