Several NASA spacecraft near the comet captured images as it travelled through space around 18 million miles away
NASA has released breathtaking images of an interstellar comet passing through our solar system.
Known as 3I/Atlas, it is only the third confirmed object to enter the solar system from another star. Images of the comet were shared during a press conference hosted by the space agency on Wednesday.
Several NASA spacecraft near the red planet captured images as it travelled through space – only around 18 million miles from the spacecraft. The comet itself is currently about 190 million miles from Earth and will come as close as 167 million miles in mid-December before whizzing back into interstellar space.
Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project also zoomed in on the comet – first discovered this summer – during an observation from Italy today. The comet can be also seen from Earth in the predawn sky using binoculars.
Tom Statler, lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASA, told Live Science that these images are still largely unprocessed and contain observations that “the science community will be digging into for years”.
31/Atlas – named after the telescope in Chile that first spotted it – has fuelled online conspiracy theories suggesting it might be a spaceship. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb floated the idea before later conceding on Medium in late October that the object is “most likely a comet of natural origin”.
This theory still caught the internet’s attention, even prompting celebrity Kim Kardashian to ask NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy on X for the “tea” (slang for juicy details) about 3I/Atlas. Duffy, an appointee of President Donald Trump, replied: “No aliens. No threat to life here on Earth.”
During Wednesday’s press conference, NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya dismissed rumours about 3I/ATLAS’ origins, saying all evidence points it being a natural comet from another star system.
The European Space Agency’s Juice spacecraft has been training its cameras and instruments on the comet all month, as it’s expected to be in a “very active state”. But scientists are not likely to receive the observations until February because the spacecraft’s main antenna is currently serving as a heat shield while it’s near the Sun, which limits data flow, the agency said.
