The latest images of an interstellar comet shared by NASA have captured how an array of spacecraft witnessed a flyby that was truly out of this world, revealing clues to the object’s composition, revealing clues to the object’s composition.Astronomers first detected the rare comet, known as 3I/ATLAS, on July 1. It’s only the third observed interstellar object, or ISO, to originate outside of our solar system and pass through it.When the interstellar comet flew by the red planet in October, multiple NASA missions pivoted from their explorations to capture tantalizing images of the object that originated outside of our solar system.Stacked images of 3I/ATLAS, taken by the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory spacecraft, show it speeding at 130,000 miles per hour in September. – NASA/Lowell Observatory/Qicheng ZhangThe US space agency released the new observations on Wednesday since it had been unable to share them during the government shutdown.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWhile none of the spacecraft have cameras perfectly designed to spot comets zipping by at speeds up to about 153,000 miles per hour (246,000 kilometers per hour), astronomers didn’t want to miss what might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.“It’s a little bit as if our NASA spacecraft were at a baseball game, watching the game from different places in the stadium,” said Tom Statler, lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASA. “Everybody has got a camera and they’re trying to get a picture of the ball and nobody has a perfect view, and everybody has a different camera.”The Lucy spacecraft captured a faint halo of gas and dust around the comet on September 16. – NASA/Goddard/SwRI/JHU-APLMissions capture images of a rare interstellar cometNearly 20 mission teams collaborated to capture images of the comet, said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.“Everything we’re learning about the comet is possible because of the distribution of all of the different instruments on our spacecraft with different capabilities,” Fox said. “We’ve even pushed our scientific instruments beyond the things that they were designed to achieve, to allow us to capture this amazing glimpse at this interstellar traveler.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAhead of the Martian flyby in September, the Lucy and Psyche spacecraft, en route to study asteroids, and solar-focused missions, like the Parker Solar Probe, SOHO and PUNCH, caught glimpses of the comet in action.Combining the data from Lucy and Psyche with Earth-based telescopes can reveal more about the three-dimensional structure of the comet and the nature of the dust coming off of it due to the heat of the sun, Statler said.“It’s a rare opportunity to compare ancient dust from a distant solar system to that from our own,” he said.3I/ATLAS appears as a faint smudge against a background of stars from the Perseverance rover’s perspective on October 4. – NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSS …
