The interstellar visitor, known as 3I/Atlas, will be seen just in this instance, never to come back again
Nasa releases close-up pictures on Wednesday of the interstellar comet that’s making a quick one-and-done tour of the solar system.
Discovered over the summer, the comet known as 3I/Atlas is only the third confirmed object to visit our corner of the cosmos from another star. It zipped harmlessly past Mars last month.
Three Nasa spacecraft on and near the red planet zoomed in on the comet as it passed just 18m miles (29m km) away, revealing a fuzzy white blob. The European Space Agency’s two satellites around Mars also made observations.
Other Nasa spacecraft will remain on the lookout in the weeks ahead, including the James Webb space telescope. At the same time, astronomers are aiming their ground telescopes at the approaching comet, which is about 190m miles (307m km) from Earth. The Virtual Telescope Project’s Gianluca Masi zoomed in Wednesday from Italy.
