{"id":67144,"date":"2025-10-09T05:44:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T05:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/67144\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T05:44:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T05:44:13","slug":"two-spacecraft-orbiting-mars-just-spotted-the-mysterious-interstellar-visitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/67144\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Spacecraft Orbiting Mars Just Spotted the Mysterious Interstellar Visitor"},"content":{"rendered":"

As our solar system\u2019s interstellar visitor<\/a> hides behind the Sun, humankind\u2019s expeditions to Mars have stepped up to provide an extra set of eyes.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the European Space Agency announced<\/a> that two of its spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet had used their cameras to snap photos of the mysterious object, dubbed 3I\/ATLAS, as it whizzed past over 18 million miles away from them.<\/p>\n

The photos were taken on October 3, when 3I\/ATLAS made its closest approach to Mars, using the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Mars Express spacecraft.<\/p>\n

In a series of images captured with the TGO\u2019s Color and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS), a glowing dot can clearly be seen inching downward across the black expanse of space. That mobile dot is the coma of the interstellar object, which is widely believed to be a comet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough our Mars orbiters continue to make impressive contributions to Mars science, it\u2019s always extra exciting to see them responding to unexpected situations like this one,\u201d Colin Wilson, the ESA\u2019s Mars Express and ExoMars project scientist, said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cI look forward to seeing what the data reveals following further analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u2604\"<\/p>\n

\u2604<\/p>\n

#3I<\/a>\/ATLAS comet update!<\/p>\n

On 3 October, our ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) turned its eyes towards interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS as it passed close to Mars.<\/p>\n

Together with Mars Express, ExoMars TGO had the closest view of the comet of all of our spacecraft. It looked towards the\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/HJE1CeaEwq<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 European Space Agency (@esa) October 7, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Deputizing the Mars spacecraft to try observe the comet was a literal shot in the dark, since both of their cameras are designed for imaging Mars\u2019 well-lit surface, and not tiny specks in the night sky \u2014 but it paid off. 3I\/ATLAS in the CaSSIS timelapse is as clear as day, showing that its coma \u2014 the glowing halo of gas and dust that gives comets their distinct look \u2014\u00a0is around several thousand miles across.<\/p>\n

Comas form as a comet nears the Sun and starts to heat up. This causes the material trapped in its core called a nucleus to either sublimate or evaporate, forcing gas and dust to come pouring out of its shell. These are thousands of times larger than the actual nucleus itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a very challenging observation for the instrument,\u201d Nick Thomas, principal investigator of the CaSSIS camera, said in a statement. \u201cThe comet is around 10,000 to 100,000 times fainter than our usual target.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the coma is easily spotted, the CaSSIS image couldn\u2019t distinguish the nucleus at its center. That\u2019s because, as the ESA explains, imaging the less-than-a-mile-across nucleus \u201cwould\u2019ve been as impossible as seeing a mobile phone on the Moon from Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mars Express also turned its gaze towards the comet, but scientists are still examining the images to reveal it. Unlike the TGO\u2019s instrument which was able to take pictures with a five second exposure, the Mars Express camera could only use an exposure time of half a second.<\/p>\n

The ESA\u2019s announcement comes just a day after speculation that a fellow Martian explorer, the NASA Perseverance rover, had caught a glimpse of 3I\/ATLAS<\/a>, which appeared as a blurry, cylindrical streak. The idea was propounded by famed Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who\u2019s been prolifically writing about the object since it was first spotted (and in which he\u2019s never missed an opportunity<\/a> to float the possibility that the object is the work of aliens.)<\/p>\n

But that may not be the case. David Kipping, an astrophysicist famous for his work on exoplanets and who runs the YouTube channel Cool Worlds, was skeptical that the rover\u2019s puny camera would\u2019ve been able to spot the comet.<\/p>\n

On his social media<\/a>, Kipping argued that the likelier explanation for what was actually depicted in the image was Phobos, the innermost of Mars\u2019 two moons. Astrophotographer Simeon Schmau\u00df agreed<\/a> that it was almost certainly Phobos, and added that the Martian moon only appeared cylindrical because of the image\u2019s long exposure.<\/p>\n

That likely false alarm underscores the excitement around 3I\/ATLAS, which is only the third interstellar object known to visit our solar system in history. This one is unbelievably ancient, too: astronomers estimate<\/a> that it may be more than seven billion years old, making it more than 3 billion years older than the Sun. Over those untold eons, it traveled from a star system somewhere near the center of the Milky Way, where it was likely ejected by a gravitational disturbance like a passing star.<\/p>\n

Examining 3I\/ATLAS has provided us with unprecedented insights into foreign star systems. Its chemistry is wildly different from the comets of our solar system<\/a>, including having an unusually high ratio of carbon dioxide to water. Dazzling the eyes, it also began changing color<\/a> before it disappeared behind the Sun.<\/p>\n

Unpacking all the data gathered on the comet will take years. But in the meantime, the ESA says it\u2019ll try take even more observations with 3I\/ATLAS using its Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice). These photos are expected to be extra juicy \u2014 pun intended \u2014 because they\u2019ll be capturing the comet right after it finishes its closest approach to the Sun, when it will be most active.<\/p>\n

More on 3I\/ATLAS: The Mysterious Object Cruising Through Solar System Is Releasing Strange Metals, Paper Finds<\/a><\/p>\n