Tag: Interstellar Comet
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Did NASA’s Perseverance Rover See Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS on Mars? What We Know
Overview: The Claim and the Context On social media and in space news circles, a question has circulated: did NASA’s Perseverance rover observe interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS streaking across the Martian night sky? Reports point to a streak of light captured by Perseverance’s Navcam on Oct. 4, the same date ESA noted 3I/ATLAS would make a…
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Did Perseverance Spot Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS on Mars? What We Can Say
Overview: A Possible Interstellar visitor and a Martian sighting NASA’s Perseverance rover recently captured what some observers describe as a streak of light in the Martian night sky. The image, taken by the rover’s Navcam on a day that aligned with the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS’s closest approach to Mars, has sparked curiosity and social media…
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Did Perseverance See Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS from Mars? What We Know So Far
Did Perseverance Spot 3I/ATLAS from Mars? The claim that NASA’s Perseverance rover captured a glimpse of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on Oct. 4 has sparked a flurry of speculation. Social media posts and blog discussions suggested a faint streak in Perseverance’s Navcam image might be 3I/ATLAS as it passed by Mars. Yet, as of now,…
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ESA repurposes Mars and Jupiter missions to study interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS
ESA repurposes Mars and Jupiter missions to study interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS The European Space Agency (ESA) is expanding the utility of its planetary missions by repurposing assets from Mars and Jupiter programs to monitor the interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS as it hurtles through the inner solar system. Discovered in July 2025 by Chile’s ATLAS survey, 3I/ATLAS…
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ESA Recycles Mars and Jupiter Missions to Track Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
ESA Turns Mars and Jupiter Missions toward 3I/ATLAS The European Space Agency (ESA) is repurposing a fleet of its planetary missions to monitor the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it speeds through the inner solar system. First spotted in July 2025 by Chile’s ATLAS telescope, 3I/ATLAS is only the third confirmed interstellar object, distinguished by its…
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ESA Repurposes Mars/Jupiter Probes to Track Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
ESA to Repurpose Mars and Jupiter Missions for 3I/ATLAS Observation The European Space Agency (ESA) is adapting its existing fleet of Mars and Jupiter mission spacecraft to observe interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it travels through our solar system. The plan leverages the near-identical orbits and complementary vantage points of Mars Express, the ExoMars Trace Gas…
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Interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS to be studied by Mars and Jupiter probes this month
Overview: A Rare Interstellar Visitor in Our Solar System The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has captured the attention of space agencies around the world as it speeds through our solar system. First spotted in July 2025 by the ATLAS telescope in Chile, 3I/ATLAS is only the third known interstellar object to pass through our cosmic neighborhood.…
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Extreme NiI/FeI Abundance in 3I/ATLAS Comet’s Coma
Overview Emission lines from neutral nickel (NiI) and neutral iron (FeI) are commonly seen in the comae of solar system comets, even when the Sun’s heat is far from sublimating refractory materials. The interstellar journey of comets preserves chemical fingerprints from their parent systems, and recent work on the interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS has highlighted an…
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Extreme NiI/FeI Abundance in the Coma of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
Introduction: Extreme metal signatures in an interstellar visitor Spectroscopic observations of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS have unveiled an extraordinary metal signature in its coma. Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) with the UVES spectrograph, researchers tracked six epochs as 3I traversed from 3.14 to 2.14 astronomical units from the Sun. In these…