Overview

• ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured a CaSSIS image sequence on Oct. 3 showing 3I/ATLAS as a faint, fuzzy dot with a visible coma about 30 million kilometers from the spacecraft.
• Mars Express did not clearly detect the target in single frames and teams are stacking and analyzing additional images and spectra to search for a fainter signal.
• A Perseverance Navcam streak highlighted online has not been verified as the comet, and NASA communications are limited during the U.S. government shutdown.
• Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb calculates that the elongated streak results from stacking hundreds of images and relative motion, not from the object’s intrinsic shape.
• The multi-mission campaign continues toward perihelion on Oct. 30, with a pending HiRISE/MRO dataset, future JUICE looks in November, and ongoing efforts to refine size and composition estimates without evidence of artificial origin.