Overview

• Fresh Gemini South images capture a distinct tail and bright coma, signaling increased activity from the interstellar object.
• NASA solar system scientist Tom Statler says the evidence overwhelmingly points to 3I/ATLAS being a natural comet rather than an artificial object.
• Researchers used the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph to obtain chemical data that track how the comet’s materials are changing during its approach to the sun.
• Precovery detections in NASA TESS images from May reveal earlier activity and help confirm its interstellar trajectory and evolution.
• Key dates include a Mars flyby on October 3 with planned orbiter imaging opportunities, perihelion on October 29, and a closest Earth approach on December 19 at roughly 269 million km.