Overview
- NASA officials said 3I/ATLAS will not hit Earth or any planet and will stay more than 250 million kilometers from our planet.
- Agency leaders described an unprecedented, multi‑asset observing campaign, with 12 spacecraft and telescopes already returning images and more missions to join.
- Russia’s Space Research Institute reported a large solar plasma cloud ejected on Nov. 17 is calculated to strike 3I/ATLAS on Nov. 21 around 15:00 Moscow time, with possible observable effects limited by resolution.
- At the briefing, NASA reiterated the object’s natural origin, with officials affirming it is a comet despite outside claims suggesting an artificial source.
- New imagery from Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope, and other spacecraft was presented, and NASA characterized the nucleus as a cosmic snowball over 5.5 kilometers across.