Overview
- The gallery includes views from Lucy, STEREO-A, PUNCH, MAVEN, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE, with frames showing a coma and a faint tail.
- The public release followed a delay tied to the U.S. government shutdown that postponed distribution of early October Mars imagery.
- 3I/ATLAS passed roughly 19 million miles from Mars in early October and reached perihelion at the end of the month.
- A distant Earth flyby is expected on Dec. 19 at about 170 million miles, and NASA says there is no impact risk.
- Early spectral data, including from JWST, indicate an unusually CO2‑rich coma now under review, and NASA dismissed claims that the object is artificial.