The famous comet 3I/ATLAS is permanently emerging from our solar system, but not before Earth’s space agency’s space paparazzi captured the clearest photo ever.
Discovered in late June and confirmed as the third known interstellar object in July, 3I/ATLAS has been zooming through the inner solar system at an estimated speed of 130,000 miles per hour (210,000 km) for the past several months. The giant jet-spewing snowball made its closest approach to Mars and the sun in October. It is scheduled to make its closest approach to Earth on December 19, at a distance of about 170 million miles (270 million kilometers), or nearly twice the distance between Earth and the sun.
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On Thursday (Dec. 4), NASA shared the latest images of 3I/ATLAS taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The bright white dot in the center of the image shows the comet’s core (body) and coma, the bright atmosphere of gas and dust that wraps around the comet before being sucked into its tail. In the background, stars stretch out in long streaks as Hubble’s camera is fixed on a fast-moving comet.
As a comet approaches the Sun, the ice inside it usually heats up and sublimates, making it brighter. Solar radiation pushes this gas into its tail, which moves away from the Sun. Meanwhile, the warmest, sun-facing side of the comet can eject jets of gas and dust angled toward the star. Both of these features are faintly visible in new Hubble images.
NASA captured this image on November 30, when Hubble was about 178 million miles (286 million km) from the comet. This is much closer than when Hubble first imaged the comet in late July. Although that first view showed little more than a blue blur, scientists were still able to pin down the size of 3I/ATLAS to somewhere between 1,400 feet (440 meters) and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) across. This is probably the largest interstellar object ever observed.
New data from this image, including details on the composition of the coma, has not yet been published, but may be released in the future.
ESA gains momentum
Also on Thursday, ESA shared the latest view of the comet taken by the Jupiter Icy Satellite Orbiter (JUICE), which is on its way to search for signs of life on Jupiter’s moons. Szus captured this image on November 2, a few days after 3I/ATLAS approached the Sun.
Even closer to its target than Hubble (just 41 million miles, or 66 million km) away, Juice shows us a comet full of activity.
“The glowing ring of gas around the comet, known as Coma, is clearly visible, as well as traces of its two tails,” an ESA spokesperson said in a statement. “The comet’s ‘plasma tail’ is made up of electrically charged gas and extends toward the top of the frame. You may also see a fainter ‘dust tail’ made up of small solid particles extending to the bottom left of the frame.”
Earth begins to prepare
Juice observed 3I/ATLAS for two days using five scientific instruments. But other than this teaser image, we still don’t know what those devices saw. The complete dataset will not reach Earth until late February 2026, according to ESA. That’s because Juice currently relies on smaller, less efficient antennas to use its main antenna as a heat shield to protect itself during the sun’s approach, and to transmit its observations back to us.
Until the scientific data is complete, there’s little to be learned from NASA and ESA’s new images, but they serve as a reminder that human space exploration is paying off in unexpected ways. Hubble and Juice were among more than a dozen spacecraft that observed 3I/ATLAS from around the solar system, including Mars rovers, solar orbiters, asteroid trackers, and space telescopes not intended to track comets.
As 3I/ATLAS approaches Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope will take another look at Earth, and countless scientific observatories and amateur astronomers will also have the opportunity to observe it. When dealing with mysterious intruders from unknown locations, every observation counts.
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