Overview

• New analyses cited by NASA and ESA describe 3I/ATLAS as a natural comet with a nucleus constrained by Hubble to roughly 0.6–5.6 kilometers and carbon dioxide detected by SPHEREx.
• Trajectory models place perihelion on October 29 at about 1.4 AU from the Sun and the closest approach to Earth at roughly 1.8 AU, which NASA says rules out any danger.
• NASA says viral images showing a bright cylindrical object were misidentified and correspond to Phobos in long exposure, while publicly available images of 3I/ATLAS remain limited.
• NASA has paused some public updates and investigations due to funding constraints during the U.S. government shutdown, and reports say China has not shared Tianwen‑1 data around the Mars passage.
• In an unrelated incident, a family in Edmonson, Texas helped authorities secure a NASA experimental balloon payload launched from Fort Sumner, New Mexico, which the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility recovered.