Better pictures without birds in them.

I am an astrophysics researcher and I also make blog posts discussing topics in astronomy for a general audience.

Yes

We'll get to observe it more closely as it gets closer to us, but sadly we can't launch a probe fast enough to catch it.

All of the evidence points to 3I/ATLAS being a comet. Its got a solid nucleus surrounded by a cloud, like a comet. We've detected water in its composition, like a comet.