Overview

• Multiple Mars assets, including MRO, Mars Express, TGO, MAVEN, Perseverance and Curiosity, observed 3I/ATLAS around its October 3 pass at roughly 30 million km from Mars, gathering high-resolution imagery and spectra.
• NASA and ESA say measurements show an active ice-and-dust comet with a detectable carbon‑dioxide coma, aligning with typical comet behavior.
• Avi Loeb explains the elongated look in Perseverance Navcam frames as the result of stacking many exposures over minutes while the fast-moving object crossed the field.
• Orbital solutions place perihelion around October 29–30 near 1.4 AU and a distant closest approach to Earth near 1.8 AU on December 19, so no impact risk is expected.
• Release of additional processed data, including higher‑resolution Mars imagery, is pending as analysis continues and some NASA public updates have been constrained by a funding lapse.