Overview

• Deep images from Gemini South on August 27 captured a prominent tail and broad coma, larger than in earlier views, indicating increased activity as 3I/ATLAS approaches the inner solar system.
• The observing program also collected color and spectral data, while separate JWST and SPHEREx measurements found a CO2‑dominated coma with a CO2:H2O ratio near 8:1 and TESS precovery showed activity at roughly 6 AU.
• Orbital analyses confirm a hyperbolic, unbound trajectory at about 58 km/s, and a new arXiv study favors a Galactic thin‑disk origin after finding no plausible recent stellar source.
• ESA plans to use Mars‑orbiting spacecraft for opportunistic observations near the October 3 Mars passage, with the object reaching perihelion around October 29 behind the Sun and reappearing for Earth‑based study in December.
• A Southwest Research Institute mission study outlines a feasible high‑speed flyby architecture for future interstellar comets and concludes a similar spacecraft could have intercepted 3I/ATLAS, while technosignature claims remain speculative without supporting detections.