View Interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas Through NASA's Multiple Lenses
3 days ago
- #space exploration
- #comet
- #NASA
- NASA is conducting a solar system-wide observation campaign of comet 3I/ATLAS, the third known interstellar object passing through our solar system.
- Twelve NASA assets have captured imagery of the comet since its discovery on July 1, with more observations planned.
- Mars spacecraft, including MRO, MAVEN, and Perseverance, provided close-up and ultraviolet images of the comet.
- Heliophysics missions like STEREO, SOHO, and PUNCH observed the comet near the Sun, a first for interstellar objects.
- Psyche and Lucy spacecraft captured images of 3I/ATLAS during their journeys, aiding in trajectory refinement and studying its coma and tail.
- The comet was discovered by the ATLAS telescope in Chile and later observed by Hubble, James Webb, and SPHEREx.
- Comet 3I/ATLAS will be closest to Earth on December 19, 2024, at 170 million miles, with continued observations until it passes Jupiter's orbit in 2026.