![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/090c5238-65cc-4c94-abce-1c5731ea6783.jpeg\")
This photo provided by Gianluca Masi shows the interstellar comet 3I\/Atlas as it streaks through space. (AP)<\/p>\nNASA has unveiled close-up pictures of the interstellar comet that\u2019s making a quick one-and-done tour of the solar system.<\/p>\n
Discovered over the summer, the comet known as 3I\/Atlas is only the third confirmed object to visit our corner of the cosmos from another star.<\/p>\n
It zipped harmlessly past Mars last month.<\/p>\n
This photo provided by Gianluca Masi shows the interstellar comet 3I\/Atlas as it streaks through space. (AP)<\/p>\n
Three NASA spacecraft on and near the red planet zoomed in on the comet as it passed just 29 million kilometres away, revealing a fuzzy white blob.<\/p>\n
The European Space Agency’s two satellites around Mars also made observations.<\/p>\n
Other NASA spacecraft will remain on the lookout in the weeks ahead, including the Webb Space Telescope.<\/p>\n
At the same time, astronomers are aiming their ground telescopes at the approaching comet, which is about 307 million kilometres from Earth.<\/p>\n
The Virtual Telescope Project’s Gianluca Masi zoomed in today from Italy.<\/p>\n
The comet is visible from Earth in the predawn sky by using binoculars or a telescope.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone that is in control of a telescope wants to look at it because it’s a fascinating and rare opportunity,” NASA acting astrophysics director Shawn Domagal-Goldman said.<\/p>\n
The closest the comet will come to Earth is 269 million kilometres in mid-December.<\/p>\n
Then it will hightail it back into interstellar space, never to return.<\/p>\n
ESA\u2019s Juice spacecraft, bound for Jupiter, has been training its cameras and scientific instruments on the comet all month, particularly after it made its closest pass to the sun.<\/p>\n
But scientists won\u2019t get any of these observations back until February because Juice\u2019s main antenna is serving as a heat shield while it\u2019s near the sun, limiting the flow of data.<\/p>\n
Named for the telescope in Chile that first spotted it, the comet is believed to be anywhere from 440 metres across to 5.6 kilometres across.<\/p>\n
Observations indicate that the exceptionally fast-moving comet may have originated in a star system older than our own, \u201cwhich gives me goose bumps to think about,\u201d NASA scientist Tom Statler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means that 3I\/Atlas is not just a window into another solar system, it\u2019s a window into the deep past and so deep in the past that it predates even the formation of our Earth and our sun,” Statler told reporters.<\/p>\n
NASA officials were quick to dispel rumors that this friendly solar system visitor, as they called it, might be an alien ship of some sort.<\/p>\n
They said that because of the federal government shutdown, they weren’t able to respond to all the theories cropping up in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
The space agency is always on the hunt for life beyond Earth, “but 3I\/Atlas is a comet,” said NASA\u2019s associate administrator, Amit Kshatriya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA has unveiled close-up pictures of the interstellar comet that\u2019s making a quick one-and-done tour of the solar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-296820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}