![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hubble-comet-3i-atlas-800x590.jpg\")
\u2018This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of the interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS. Hubble photographed the comet on July 21, 2025, when the comet was 277 million miles from Earth. Hubble shows that the comet has a teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust coming off its solid, icy nucleus. Because Hubble was tracking the comet moving along a hyperbolic trajectory, the stationary background stars are streaked in the exposure.\u2019 <\/p>\n
Astronomers used NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope<\/a> to capture the sharpest-ever photo of the comet 3I\/ATLAS<\/a> as it flew through the solar system at 130,000 miles per hour (209,000 kilometers per hour). <\/p>\n Hubble is one of many NASA missions to have peered at the unexpected interstellar comet that was initially discovered on July 1, 2025, by the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey telescope in Chile. Following its discovery, astronomers dug through archival data from three other ATLAS telescopes and found evidence of the comet dating back to June 14. <\/p>\n Comet 3I\/ATLAS is only the third known object from outside the solar system to be discovered, per NASA<\/a>. It is classified as an \u201cinterstellar\u201d object because of the \u201chyperbolic shape of its orbital path.\u201d The comet does not follow a closed orbital path around the Sun. Based on its observed orbit and behavior, the object must have originated outside the solar system. <\/p>\n Comet 3I\/ATLAS does not pose any threat to Earth, as the closest it will approach is only 170 million miles (270 million kilometers). While relatively close to Earth compared to most things in space, that is still very far away \u2014 1.8 astronomical units (au). The comet will reach its closest point to the Sun later this year on October 30, at a distance of about 130 million miles (210 million kilometers, 1.4 au. That will place the comet \u201cjust inside the orbit of Mars.\u201d <\/p>\n Given its exceptional rarity, comet 3I\/ATLAS has been a fascinating subject for scientists as they work to learn as much as possible about the object. Thanks to Hubble\u2019s detailed observations, astronomers have accurately estimated the size of the comet\u2019s \u201csolid, icy nucleus\u201d to be between 1,000 feet and 3.5 miles (320 meters to 5.6 kilometers). <\/p>\n<\/p>\n While this sounds like a fairly large range, it is worth considering that Hubble has provided the best, clearest data yet, and that the comet is careening through space at 130,000 miles per hour. It is a relatively small and exceptionally swift target. <\/p>\n NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope, Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, plus the W.M. Keck Observatory, will also build upon Hubble\u2019s observations to provide more information about the interstellar visitor, including its chemical composition. <\/p>\n Given the comet\u2019s \u201cbreathtaking\u201d speed, the highest ever recorded for a \u201csolar system visitor,\u201d scientists believe comet 3I\/ATLAS has been drifting through space for \u201cmany billions of years.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cNo one knows where the comet came from. It\u2019s like glimpsing a rifle bullet for a thousandth of a second. You can\u2019t project that back with any accuracy to figure out where it started on its path,\u201d says David Jewitt of the University of California, Los Angeles. Jewitt is the science team leader for the Hubble observations. <\/p>\n Jewitt is lead author on a research paper about the comet, \u201cHubble Space Telescope Observations of the Interstellar Interloper 3I\/ATLAS,\u201d which is available now on arxiv<\/a> and will be published shortly in The Astrophysical Journal Letters<\/a>. <\/p>\n Image credits: NASA, ESA, David Jewitt (UCLA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of the interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS. Hubble photographed the comet on July…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[305,64,63,10474,45029,23341,23342,131,128,45030,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-54129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-astronomy","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-comet","12":"tag-comet3iatlas","13":"tag-hubble","14":"tag-hubblespacetelescope","15":"tag-nasa","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-solarsystem","18":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54129","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=54129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}