Europe Asia News

According to a statement by NASA, this comet is thought to be the oldest comet ever observed and one of only three interstellar objects discovered in our Solar System.

Because comets move quickly across the sky compared with background stars, the telescope had to track the comet’s motion during long exposures. This caused the background stars to appear as streaks. The final image was processed to correct this effect and keep the stars fixed.

NASA also released an image of 3I/ATLAS taken by the Europa Clipper spacecraft, which was launched in October 2024 and is currently traveling toward Jupiter to study one of its moons, Europa.

Although the spacecraft will not reach the Jupiter system until 2030, its instruments are already active and capable of observing and imaging passing objects.

NASA scientists took advantage of this opportunity by turning Europa Clipper’s camera toward 3I/ATLAS, capturing unique images of the comet from space as it passed through the inner Solar System.

Europa Clipper observed comet 3I/ATLAS from a distance of about 164 million kilometers for approximately seven hours.

Comet 3I/ATLAS was discovered on July 1, 2025, and quickly became one of the most significant space science stories of the year. Unlike most comets that formed within our Solar System, 3I/ATLAS originated much farther away.

As the third interstellar object recorded after ʻOumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019, 3I/ATLAS drew attention with its icy nucleus surrounded by a coma—a bright halo of gas and dust.

Since its discovery, scientists have been racing to observe the comet using humanity’s most powerful telescopes before it exits the Solar System and disappears forever.

The comet has also sparked speculation about a potentially more mysterious origin. Observations by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) showed that the comet deviated from its predicted path by about four arcseconds and that its color changed dramatically from reddish to dark blue.

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb suggested in a blog post that this anomaly could be a “technological signature of an internal engine,” although most scientists say natural explanations are far more likely.

So far, there is no concrete evidence supporting the theory that 3I/ATLAS was sent by extraterrestrials. On the contrary, recent efforts to find traces of alien technology on 3I/ATLAS have yielded no results.

One day before 3I/ATLAS reached its closest point to Earth, on December 18, astronomers used the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to search the comet for “technological signatures” or measurable signs of alien technology. However, the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope found nothing noteworthy.

For now, 3I/ATLAS continues its short but spectacular journey through our cosmic neighborhood. According to NASA, its final significant encounter will occur in March 2026, when it passes near Jupiter before leaving the Solar System for good.