Overview

• NASA’s Perseverance published raw Navcam frames from Oct. 4 showing a bright streak during 3I/ATLAS’s post‑flyby passage, one of which became the agency’s Image of the Week.
• Avi Loeb and imaging specialists say the elongated shape results from stacking long integrations over roughly 10 minutes, producing a path thousands of kilometers long that does not reflect the object’s form.
• Amateurs including Simeon Schmauß and Stefan Burns reported faint, stacked Mastcam‑Z detections near the predicted position, though these remain unconfirmed candidates.
• Higher‑resolution views reportedly taken by MRO’s HiRISE on Oct. 3 have not been released, and NASA communications are constrained by the government shutdown.
• Independent spectroscopy with ESO’s VLT/UVES finds a variable, elevated Ni/Fe ratio consistent with sublimating organometallic carbonyls and C2 depletion, reinforcing a cometary interpretation despite public claims of an artificial origin.