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2w ago

NASA to Unveil New 3I/ATLAS Images Today at 3 p.m. EST

The release offers scientists their best look yet at the object's activity near the Sun.

Image
Image
ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter was repurposed to monitor 3I/ATLAS during in Mars flyby on Oct. 3. The spacecraft performed well, even though it was not designed to perform tasks like this.
Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb is still not giving up hope that 3I/ATLAS could be an alien mothership and says it's too early to call it.

Overview

  • NASA will broadcast the image release from Goddard at 3 p.m. EST on NASA+, the NASA app, the agency’s website, YouTube, and Amazon Prime.
  • The imagery was gathered by multiple missions and observatories, with observations from Mars orbiters, Hubble and other assets capturing activity that was hidden from Earth during perihelion.
  • ESA reports that ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter images from the Oct. 3 Mars flyby refined the object’s trajectory by about ten-fold, with results accepted by the IAU Minor Planet Center.
  • 3I/ATLAS is the third confirmed interstellar object, follows a safe hyperbolic path, passed within about 19 million miles of Mars in early October, and will be no closer than roughly 170 million miles to Earth on Dec. 19.
  • Recent reports describe jets, a transient anti-tail and color change, and brief brightening, and scientists say these features remain consistent with a natural comet; the Virtual Telescope Project also livestreamed views for the public, and questions can be sent with #AskNASA.