First spotted in July 2025 by Chile’s ATLAS telescope, 3I/ATLAS is only the third interstellar object ever confirmed—zooming through our solar system at a whopping 219,000 km/h! 🌠
Ground-based observatories can track it until September 2025, but as it swings close to the Sun, our view from Earth will be blocked. No worries: ESA is repurposing its Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) to keep tabs on the comet as it flies near Mars from October 1-7, with a close approach of 30 million km on October 3. NASA’s Psyche mission and other orbiters like Tianwen-1 will join the party.
The real star of the show? ESA’s JUICE probe, bound for Jupiter. From November 2-25—right after the comet’s perihelion (closest Sun pass)—JUICE will capture the epic gas-and-dust fireworks when solar heat vaporizes ices into a glowing coma and tail. 🔥🌌
"JUICE is best positioned for perihelion, when Earth observations are hardest," says space scientist T. Marshall Eubanks. The data will help map 3I/ATLAS’s chemical fingerprint and answer whether these interstellar visitors share DNA with comets born in our own solar system. Expect fresh insights into how star systems swap material across the galaxy! 🚀
Reference(s):
ESA uses Mars, Jupiter missions to track interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS
cgtn.com
