{"id":51313,"date":"2025-10-02T13:37:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T13:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/51313\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T13:37:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T13:37:06","slug":"interstellar-comet-swinging-past-mars-as-a-fleet-of-spacecraft-looks-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/51313\/","title":{"rendered":"Interstellar comet swinging past Mars as a fleet of spacecraft looks on"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 A comet from another star system will swing by Mars on Friday as a fleet\u2026<\/p>\n<p>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 A <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/interstellar-comet-tail-telescope-3iatlas-04ef7b26c019f61f9414015a63866988\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">comet from another star system<\/a> will swing by Mars on Friday as a fleet of spacecraft trains its sights on the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/new-comet-nasa-3iatlas-83646ec002106c8ff89757330c69bfe8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">interstellar visitor<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The comet known as <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/interstellar-comet-hubble-nasa-5c38be5c545443c7d646111b7aa55b89\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">3I\/Atlas<\/a> will hurtle within 18 million miles (29 million kilometers) of the red planet, its closest approach during its trek through the inner solar system. Its breakneck speed: 193,000 mph (310,000 kph).<\/p>\n<p>Both of the European Space Agency\u2019s satellites around Mars are already aiming their cameras at the comet, which is only the third interstellar object known to have passed our way. NASA\u2019s satellite and rovers at the red planet are also available to assist in the observations.<\/p>\n<p>Discovered in July, the comet poses no threat to Earth or its neighboring planets. It will come closest to the sun at the end of October. Throughout November, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/jupiter-rocket-launch-moons-spacecraft-75a1b285cd188b9bb9745d40b294e01b\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ESA\u2019s Juice spacecraft<\/a>, which is headed to Jupiter and its icy moons, will keep an eye on the comet.<\/p>\n<p>The comet will make its closest approach to Earth in December, passing within 167 million miles (269 million kilometers).<\/p>\n<p>Observations by the Hubble Space Telescope put the comet\u2019s nucleus at no more than 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) across. It could be as small as 1,444 feet (440 meters), according to NASA.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright<br \/>\n                        \u00a9\u00a02025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 A comet from another star system will swing by Mars on Friday as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":["post-51313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}