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Interstellar Visitor Gets Its Close-Up from NASA
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Our cosmic neighborhood recently welcomed a fleeting guest from beyond our solar system, and NASA has now shared some incredible close-up snapshots of this rare visitor. The interstellar comet, officially known as 3I/Atlas, is making a quick, one-time pass through our solar system, offering scientists a unique opportunity to study an object from another star system.
Discovered this past summer, 3I/Atlas marks only the third confirmed object to venture into our part of the cosmos from a different star. Last month, it safely zipped past Mars, prompting a flurry of observations from multiple spacecraft.
Three NASA spacecraft-both on and orbiting the Red Planet-focused their lenses on the comet as it passed a mere 18 million miles (29 million kilometers) away, capturing images that reveal a fuzzy white blob. Not to be outdone, the European Space Agency’s two satellites around Mars also joined in the observation effort.
The celestial show isn’t over yet. In the coming weeks, other NASA spacecraft, including the powerful Webb Space Telescope, will continue to monitor the comet.
Meanwhile, astronomers worldwide are aiming their ground-based telescopes at 3I/Atlas, which is currently approximately 190 million miles (307 million kilometers) from Earth. Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project, for instance, captured his own zoomed-in views from Italy on Wednesday.
For those eager to catch a glimpse, the comet is currently visible in the predawn sky with the aid of binoculars or a telescope.
“Everyone that is in control of a telescope wants to look at it because it’s a fascinating and rare opportunity,” stated Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA’s acting astrophysics director, highlighting the excitement surrounding this interstellar guest.
The closest 3I/Atlas will come to Earth is 167 million miles (269 million kilometers) in mid-December. After that, it will gracefully exit our solar system, embarking on a journey back into interstellar space, never to return.
Even the European Space Agency’s Juice spacecraft, currently en route to Jupiter, has been training its cameras and scientific instruments on the comet throughout the month, particularly after its closest approach to the sun. However, due to Juice’s main antenna serving as a heat shield while near the sun, data flow is limited, and these observations won’t be transmitted back to Earth until February.
Named after the telescope in Chile where it was first spotted, the comet’s size is estimated to range from 1,444 feet (440 meters) across to a substantial 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) across. Initial observations suggest that this exceptionally fast-moving comet may have originated in a star system even older than our own.
“That means that 3I/Atlas is not just a window into another solar system, it’s a window into the deep past and so deep in the past that it predates even the formation of our Earth and our sun,” explained NASA scientist Tom Statler, a revelation he admitted gives him “goose bumps to think about.”
NASA officials were quick to address and dispel recent rumors suggesting this “friendly solar system visitor” might be an alien spacecraft. They noted that due to the federal government shutdown, they had been unable to fully respond to the various theories circulating in recent weeks.
While the space agency remains dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life, Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator, clarified, “but 3I/Atlas is a comet.”