A photo published by the China National Space Administration on Jan 1, 2022, shows the Tianwen 1 robotic probe’s orbiter flying around Mars. The picture is transmitted back to Earth by the probe itself. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
BEIJING – The orbiter of China’s Mars mission Tianwen-1 has successfully observed an interstellar object, coded 3I/ATLAS, using its high-resolution camera, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
During the observation, the spacecraft was about 30 million kilometers from 3I/ATLAS, making it one of the closest observations by a probe of this interstellar object.
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Data received and processed by the ground application system showed clear cometary features in the images. Researchers created an animation from a series of images taken over 30 seconds, demonstrating the object’s movement through space. These observations are now being used for further scientific study of 3I/ATLAS.
This successful observation represents an important extended mission for Tianwen-1. The detection of such a faint celestial object serves as a valuable technical test for China’s Tianwen-2 mission, which was launched in May — aiming to collect samples from a near-Earth asteroid and explore a main-belt comet, the CNSA said.