Overview
- Perihelion occurs on October 29 at roughly 1.35–1.4 AU from the Sun, with the object currently too close to the solar glare for easy Earth-based viewing.
- Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope, and ESA assets at Mars have captured activity and spectra, and ESA’s JUICE will conduct targeted observations from November 2–25.
- Spectroscopy reports active release of carbon dioxide, water, carbon monoxide and other volatiles, with atypical proportions compared with many solar‑system comets.
- Traveling about 210,000–221,000 km/h on a hyperbolic path, 3I/ATLAS is confirmed as the third known interstellar object and will pass closest to Earth around December 19 at roughly 270 million kilometers.
- IAWN and the Minor Planet Center have organized a late‑November to January astrometric exercise and NASA issued an MPEC for precautionary monitoring, while unconfirmed media claims about unusual nickel emissions and artificial‑origin ideas are being weighed against the prevailing natural‑comet interpretation.