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Interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS captured by astronomer Gianluca Masi on Nov. 19. (Image credit: Gianluca Masi, Virtual Telescope Project)<\/p>\n
Astronomer Gianluca Masi captured a spectacular image of interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS on Nov. 19, as it raced headlong away from the sun following a close pass of our parent star on Oct. 29, an event known as perihelion.<\/p>\n
Comet 3I\/ATLAS<\/a> was discovered on July 1 of this year and was quickly confirmed to be only the third interstellar object known to visit our solar system<\/a>, after the 2017 flyby of bizarre object 1I\/’Oumuamua<\/a> and the more traditionally comet<\/a>-like arrival of 2I\/Borisov<\/a> in 2019. NASA will release new images of interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS that were “collected by a number of the agency’s missions” during a press conference today (Nov. 19) at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT), which you can watch live here on Space.com<\/a>, courtesy of NASA.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Masi captured 3I\/ATLAS<\/a> soon after it emerged from behind the glare of the sun<\/a> in the weeks following perihelion<\/a>, revealing a bright central nucleus surrounded by the diffuse glow of its gaseous coma. Stunning detail can also be observed in the comet’s ion tail, which takes on an almost spectral, gossamer-like appearance as it is caught up and swept away by the stream of charged particles emanating from the sun, known as the solar wind<\/a>.<\/p>\n Best picks for you<\/p>\n “For me, it is particularly interesting to see how such an interstellar object evolves,” Masi told Space.com<\/a> in an email. “Knowing it came from so far away adds a very special flavor to the observations.”<\/p>\n Masi’s image is the result of combining 11 individual 120-second exposures taken with a 10-inch (250 mm) astrograph telescope equipped with a state-of-the-art astronomy camera located at the Virtual Telescope Project’<\/a>s facility in Manciano, Italy. The observations were made during a free public livestream under good atmospheric conditions as the comet travelled through the stars of the constellation Virgo<\/a> in the early hours of Nov. 19 (local time).<\/p>\n Editor’s Note: If you capture an image of 3II\/ATLAS and want to share it with Space.com’s readers, then please send your photos and comments along with your name and location to spacephotos@space.com. <\/p>\n