{"id":451540,"date":"2026-05-16T06:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T06:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/451540\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T06:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T06:57:13","slug":"two-spacecraft-photographed-comet-3i-atlas-at-the-same-time-as-it-flew-by-the-sun-heres-what-they-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/451540\/","title":{"rendered":"Two spacecraft photographed comet 3I\/ATLAS at the same time as it flew by the Sun. Here’s what they found"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two spacecraft on their way to Jupiter observed and imaged both sides of the interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS and provided chemical analysis of the gases vaporising off it.<\/p>\n

The European Space Agency’s Juice<\/a> spacecraft and NASA’s Europa Clipper<\/a> spacecraft were able to simultaneously photograph both hemispheres of the comet as it flew through the Solar System in late 2025.<\/p>\n

\"InterstellarInterstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS captured by NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, 6 November 2025. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/SWRI<\/p>\n

A comet from beyond the Solar System<\/p>\n

Comet 3I\/ATLAS is an interstellar comet, meaning it originated from a distant corner of our Galaxy, far beyond our Solar System.<\/p>\n

It could be as old as 10 billion years old, making it more than twice the age of our Solar System, and the oldest comet ever observed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of comets we know of formed on the edges of our Solar System. 3I\/ATLAS is one of only three interstellar objects ever found.<\/p>\n

it’s currently exiting our Solar System and once it’s gone, it will be gone from view forever.<\/p>\n

That’s why astronomers are trying to learn as much about 3I\/ATLAS as they can.<\/p>\n

\"IllustrationIllustration showing the paths of 3I\/ATLAS, Europa Clipper and the Juice spacecraft across the Solar System. Credit: Courtesy of NASA\/ESA\/Southwest Research Institute
\nA double spacecraft encounter<\/p>\n

In late 2025, scientists turned the Ultraviolet Spectrograph instruments on both Juice and Europa Clipper towards comet 3I\/ATLAS.<\/p>\n

These spacecraft are currently on their way to Jupiter to learn more about the planet’s icy moons and their potential to host life.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn image of comet 3I\/ATLAS captured by the Juice spacecraft’s NavCam, November 2025. Credit: ESA\/Juice\/NavCam<\/p>\n

Their positions deep in the Solar System gave them the opportunity to observe 3I\/ATLAS from a new angle and use their science instruments to learn more about the interstellar visitor.<\/p>\n

The instruments are led by the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas and were used to simultaneously image both hemispheres of the comet and detect its ultraviolet emissions.<\/p>\n

What they found
\n\"TheThe view of comet 3I\/ATLAS from the Juice spacecraft’s Ultraviolet Spectrograph instrument. It saw gas and dust elements stretching over 5 million km from the comet’s nucleus on 25 November 2025. Black spots are where stars appeared in the scanned image. Credit: NASA\/ESA\/Southwest Research Institute<\/p>\n

“As the comet passed between Juice and Europa Clipper, we were able to informally coordinate observations between the two spacecraft,” says Dr. Kurt Retherford, principal investigator of Juice-UVS and Europa-UVS.<\/p>\n

“Crucially, we observed hydrogen, oxygen and carbon emissions. These elements are produced when gases escaping the comet\u2019s nucleus break apart into atoms when exposed to sunlight.”<\/p>\n

‘Observing the interstellar comet was some exciting bonus science. The resulting rare and unique dataset includes gas emissions and scattered dust,” says SwRI\u2019s Dr. Philippa Molyneux, co-deputy principal investigator for the Juice-UVS instrument. <\/p>\n

\"CometComet 3I\/ATLAS, as seen by the European Space Agency’s Juice spacecraft. Credit: ESA<\/p>\n

“This was the first time we\u2019ve had simultaneous direct views of a comet\u2019s coma of escaping gas from two directions. Europa Clipper showed us the night side of the comet, with a great deal of scattered dust, while Juice imaged mostly glowing gas on the day side.”<\/p>\n

The reason 3I\/ATLAS was giving off so much gas is because, like all comets, it’s composed of water ice and rock.<\/p>\n

As a comet approaches the Sun, it heats up and that ice sublimates into gas, which forms the fuzzy head and long tail visible on active comets.<\/p>\n

In this case, the science team detected higher levels of carbon emissions from 3I\/ATLAS than expected, especially in comparison to comets from our Solar System.<\/p>\n

\"OxygenOxygen signals and hydrogen signals detected from comet 3I\/ATLAS by the Ultraviolet Spectrograph instrument on the Juice spacecraft, shortly after the comet’s nearest approach to the Sun. Credit: Courtesy of NASA\/ESA\/Southwest Research Institute<\/p>\n

They were also able to track emissions over several days and discover how the ratios of molecules changed, as well as how 3I\/ATLAS was evolving as it made its way through our Solar System.<\/p>\n

“By studying the ratio of water ice and dry ice, we can compare the composition of this interstellar comet to comets native to our solar system,” Molyneux says.<\/p>\n

“This helps us understand if the solar system where 3I\/ATLAS formed is similar to ours or different.”<\/p>\n

“I think the coordination with Europa Clipper was a fun and impactful demonstration that showed how the two projects could coordinate observation plans,” Retherford says.<\/p>\n

“And because SwRI\u2019s team is involved in both missions, it was a special highlight for us in terms of working together.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two spacecraft on their way to Jupiter observed and imaged both sides of the interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82],"class_list":["post-451540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}