Hubble Space Telescope photographed the comet 286 million kilometers from Earth on November 30
A telescope from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) photographed the approach of comet 3I/Atlas to Earth. According to the American agency, the Hubble Space Telescope photographed the comet 286 million kilometers from Earth on November 30. “Hubble tracked the comet as it moved across the sky. As a result, background stars appear as trails of light,” it said.
NASA estimates that 3I/Atlas will reach a maximum of 270 million kilometers from Earth and states that it does not pose any threat. The comet was spotted for the first time on July 1st of this year, using the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (Atlas) telescope, funded by NASA and located in Rio Hurtado, Chile. It is only the third interstellar object – as celestial bodies that form in another star system and enter the Solar System are called – ever detected.
Before 3I/Atlas, 1I/’Oumuamua, in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, in 2019, had already been identified. Based on the trajectory of 3I/Atlas, astronomers from the European Space Agency (ESA) suspect that it is the oldest comet ever observed and is 3 billion years older than the Solar System – which is already 4.6 billion years old.
Another record
Before Hubble, ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) space probe, designed to study Jupiter’s icy moons, had already recorded the approach of 3I/Atlas to Earth, on November 2. According to the European agency, Juice used five of its 10 scientific instruments to observe the interstellar object.
“The instruments collected information about the comet’s behavior and its composition,” ESA said. The image released was taken by the navigation camera, designed to help Juice navigate Jupiter’s icy moons after its arrival in 2031, and does not have the high resolution of scientific cameras.
Complete data from the probe should only be received on February 18 and 20, 2026. However, scientists brought forward a quarter of the image recorded by the navigation camera. According to ESA, it is possible to see the bright coma of gas, which surrounds the comet’s nucleus, and two tails.
“The comet’s ‘plasma tail’ – made up of electrically charged gas – extends towards the top of the image. We can also see a fainter ‘dust tail’ – made up of tiny solid particles – that extends towards the bottom left of the image,” explained the European agency.
The photo was taken two days before Juice’s closest approach to 3I/Atlas, which occurred on November 4, at a distance of approximately 66 million kilometers.
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