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It's happening: we're yet getting a treasure trove of shiny caller images of comet 3I/ATLAS, the third ultra-rare known object to participate the Solar System from interstellar space.
On Wednesday November 19 astatine 3PM EST (8PM UT), NASA volition big an event to driblet a plethora of 3I/ATLAS imagery collected by the ground-based telescopes and spacecraft supported by the agency.
You tin tune successful to ticker astatine the YouTube embed below.
NASA is playing coy astir the instruments involved, but Hubble, JWST, and Mars orbiters whitethorn likely person observed the entity from space, portion observatories specified arsenic the ATLAS survey telescope and the Gemini observatory whitethorn person captured it from the ground.
Related: Don't Panic! 3I/ATLAS Isn't an Alien Death Probe, But It Is Wildly Unusual
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS made a immense splash erstwhile it burst onto the country in July 2025, but present we're astatine the captious constituent of its trajectory done the Solar System. The ultra-weird comet disappeared down the Sun from Earth's viewpoint connected October 21, and reached perihelion – that's its closest attack to the Sun – connected October 29, earlier re-emerging successful aboriginal November.
Perihelion is erstwhile you're apt to spot a comet bash immoderate exciting things. They're known arsenic 'dirty snowballs' due to the fact that they are fundamentally clumps of stone and ice; arsenic they get adjacent the Sun, the crystal starts to sublimate, creating a tiny atmosphere, oregon coma, and the tails of vapor and ions that comets are known for. At perihelion, this enactment is astatine its peak.
Because 3I/ATLAS was down the Sun during perihelion, we were incapable to observe this enactment from Earth. However, the comet was truly adjacent to Mars astatine the time, starring to anticipation that instruments orbiting the reddish satellite captured this moment. Indeed, we already person immoderate Mars observations of the comet, courtesy of the European Space Agency.
As NASA pointed out, "Assets wrong NASA's subject missions springiness the United States the unsocial capableness to observe 3I/ATLAS astir the full clip it passes done our celestial neighborhood, and survey – with complementary technological instruments and from antithetic directions – however the comet behaves."
A batch of eyes person been connected this icy rock, and volition proceed to beryllium until it disappears from view. But the champion accidental for ground-based observations is yet to come. 3I/ATLAS volition marque its closest attack to Earth on December 19, erstwhile it volition beryllium astir 270 cardinal kilometers (170 cardinal miles) away.
We'll beryllium excited to spot what Earth's telescopes travel up with erstwhile that time comes. Meanwhile, you tin tune into the upcoming NASA broadcast connected NASA+, the NASA Live website, the YouTube embed above, oregon the NASA app.
