Comet 3I/ATLAS is making a grand tour, passing at high speed inside the orbits of Mars and Jupiter then zooming away,
Comet 3I/ATLAS is making a grand tour, passing at high speed inside the orbits of Mars and Jupiter then zooming away, never to return. The comet’s track offers a rare opportunity for observations — and images — to be taken by multiple NASA spacecraft positioned around the solar system. The comet, originally detected by ground-based telescopes, has already been captured by NASA’s Hubble, Webb, and SPHEREx space telescopes. More robotic explorers will get a chance to make observations as 3I/ATLAS makes its closest pass by Mars on Oct. 3 at a distance of about 17 million miles, or 28 million kilometers. The comet then passes behind the Sun as seen from Earth, but spacecraft like NASA’s Europa Clipper, en route to the Jupiter system, may be able to observe it. By early December, 3I/ATLAS once again will be within view of telescopes on Earth. The comet makes its closest pass to Jupiter in March 2026 before continuing onward out of our solar system and farther into interstellar space. 3I/ATLAS poses no threat to Earth. The closest it will come to our planet is about 1.8 astronomical units (about 170 million miles, or 270 million kilometers) away.
