Mars Photographs an Interstellar Visitor: NASA Captures Comet 3I/ATLAS

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:06] Speaker B: This is STM Daily News, and I'm Rod Washington. Today we're talking about recent developments with Interstellar Visitor 3i Atlas. NASA has announced that three spacecraft on and around Mars have captured images and Data of Comet 3I Atlas, an icy visitor from another star system. Let me repeat that. Mars just photographed an interstellar comet. This is only the third interstellar object ever observed in our solar system. The first was the mysterious 1i Oumuamua in 2017. The second was the more traditional comet 2i Borisov in 2019. And now, in 2025, we're witnessing the arrival of 3i Atlas. What makes this moment extraordinary is the vantage point. While Earth telescopes get only a distant view, Mars had a front row seat. On October 2, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter used its high rise camera to snap one of the closest spacecraft images we've ever seen of an interstellar object from just 18.6 million miles away. From that distance, MRO captured the comet's immense dust and ice coma, which stretches tens of thousands of miles across. Then the MAVEN spacecraft joined in using ultraviolet imaging to detect hydrogen streaming off the comet. That hydrogen allows scientists to measure its deuterium to hydrogen ratio, a chemical signature that can reveal the comet's birthplace and hint at the conditions around the star. [00:01:31] Speaker A: System where it formed. [00:01:33] Speaker B: And even on the surface of Mars, the Perseverance rover looked up and caught a faint glimpse of the comet using. [00:01:39] Speaker A: Long exposure imaging, a little streak of light from another star. These combined observations are giving us one of the most complete pictures ever gathered of an interstellar comet. And each one matters because objects like these carry the building blocks of other solar systems. Think about it. [00:01:58] Speaker B: This is material that formed around a. [00:02:00] Speaker A: Star we've never seen in a region of space we'll never visit. And yet, here it is, drifting past. [00:02:05] Speaker B: Mars and photographed by robots we sent to another planet. 3i Atlas will make its closest approach to Earth on December 19, but it. [00:02:15] Speaker A: Won'T be visible without powerful telescopes. [00:02:17] Speaker B: The real magic of this discovery happened on Mars, and it shows just how far human exploration has come. For STM Daily News, I'm Rod Washington. Thanks for listening, and stay tuned for more updates on our interstellar neighbor, Comet 3 Iatlas.