Comets

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover may have captured an image of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS streaking across the sky above the Red Planet.

ESA is making use of spacecraft originally dedicated to its Mars and Jupiter missions to track comet 3I/ATLAS as it continues its journey through our solar system

Astronomers say that mysterious interstellar visitors like 'Oumuamua and 3I/ATLAS are the most common large bodies in the Milky Way — and our best chance to study other planetary systems.

The comet will come closest to Earth on Oct. 20. There's hope that it may become bright enough to glimpse with the naked eye.

The interstellar visitor appears to have a lot in common with its solar system brethren.

The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will zoom past Mars in October 2025, and ESA's Mars orbiters will attempt to image and analyze the object during the encounter.

"Once these objects get too faint to see, they will never be seen again,"

While observing the Halley-type comet 12P/Pons-Brooks with ALMA and NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility, researchers determined that the comet's water is strikingly similar to the water on Earth.

New Hubble Telescope imagery of the interstellar interloper comet 3I/ATLAS reveals a dusty coma and the beginning of a tail.