Overview
- ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Mars Express secured the nearest views in early October, imaging an extremely faint target and collecting spectra despite it being 10,000–100,000 times dimmer than Mars.
- Hubble reports material flowing toward the Sun at roughly 150 kilograms per second, dominated by carbon dioxide and water with trace cyanide and nickel and no detected iron.
- Keck observations indicate strong nickel emission, with a Keck study arguing for a rare natural process while Harvard’s Avi Loeb advances a disputed interpretation involving nickel tetracarbonyl.
- Publication of some close‑pass imagery, including HiRISE data, was delayed by a U.S. government shutdown, and detailed analyses remain in progress.
- Researchers plan intensive monitoring around the October 29 solar approach, and ESA says its JUICE mission will obtain additional observations in early 2026.