3I/ATLAS update! ????

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UFONews
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Until September, figuring out the location and trajectory of 3I/ATLAS relied on Earth-based telescopes. Then between 1 and 7 October, our ExoMars TGO turned its eyes towards the interstellar comet from its orbit around Mars. The comet passed relatively close to Mars, approaching to about 29 million km during its closest phase on 3 October.

The Mars probe observed the comet from a new viewing angle. The triangulation of its data with data from Earth helped to make the comet’s predicted path much more accurate. The result was an impressive ten-fold leap in accuracy, reducing the uncertainty of the object’s location.
Because 3I/ATLAS is passing through our Solar System fast, travelling with speeds up to 250 000 km/h, it will soon vanish into interstellar space, never to return.

The comet is currently being observed with our Juice spacecraft. Though Juice is farther from 3I/ATLAS than the Mars orbiters were last month, it is seeing the comet just after its closest approach to the Sun, when it is in a more active state. We don’t expect to receive data from Juice’s observations until February 2026.

???? @europeanspaceagency
????️ ESA / Las Cumbres Observatory/TGO/CaSSIS/ @nasa, D. Jewitt (UCLA), J. DePasquale (STScI) @creativecommons by SA 3.0 IGO
Category
Deep Space
Tags
ESA, European Space Agency, Space
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