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<\/a><\/p>\nThis image of the interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS was captured by the JANUS camera aboard ESA\u2019s Juice spacecraft on November 6, 2025, just seven days after the comet made its closest approach to the Sun. At the time, Juice was about 66 million km (41 million miles) away from the comet. The inset in the image shows the same data, but processed to highlight the coma structure. The arrows in the top left indicate the direction in which the comet was moving (blue) and the relative direction of the Sun (yellow). Image credit: ESA \/ Juice \/ JANUS.<\/p>\n
3I\/ATLAS<\/a> was first spotted on July 1, 2025, by the NASA-funded ATLAS survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile.<\/p>\n The interstellar comet \u2014 also cataloged as C\/2025 N1 (ATLAS) and A11pl3Z \u2014 appears to have entered the Solar System from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius.<\/p>\n The object follows the most dynamically extreme orbit ever measured in the Solar System, underscoring its interstellar origins and the extraordinary speed.<\/p>\n On October 30, 2025, 3I\/ATLAS reached perihelion, its closest point to the Sun.<\/p>\n It came within 1.4 AU (210 million km, or 130.5 million miles) of our home star \u2014 just inside the orbit of Mars.<\/p>\n Throughout November 2025, the Juice spacecraft used five of its science instruments \u2014 JANUS, MAJIS, SWI, PEP and UVS \u2014 to observe 3I\/ATLAS.<\/p>\n Together, they collected information that will reveal how the comet was behaving and what it is made of.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring the months that followed the observations, Juice was on the opposite side of the Sun to Earth,\u201d said members of the Juice team.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was using its main high-gain antenna as a heat shield, and its smaller medium-gain antenna to send back data to Earth at a lower rate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis meant that we had to wait until last week to receive the data,\u201d they explained.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are now working hard to analyze them.\u201d<\/p>\n In total, the JANUS camera took more than 120 images of 3I\/ATLAS across a large wavelength range.<\/p>\n The researchers are taking a closer look at all these images to understand what they reveal about the comet.<\/p>\n They are also studying spectrometry data, investigating data on the comet\u2019s composition and particle data.<\/p>\n \u201c[The newly-released JANUS image] displays jets coming out of the nucleus of 3I\/ATLAS opposite to the direction of the Sun,\u201d said<\/a> Harvard University\u2019s Professor Avi Loeb.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is surprising since pockets of ice on the surface of a rock are supposed to be warmed up by sunlight on the Sun-facing side, creating jets that are initially directed at the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n