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Comet 3I/ATLAS

Cataloguing the journey of comet 3I/ATLAS through the solar system. Because the object comes from outside our solar system, it is just passing through – so we use all the tools at our disposal to observe it before it disappears back into the cosmic dark. A host of NASA missions are coming together to observe this interstellar object, which was first discovered in summer 2025, before it leaves forever. While the comet poses no threat to Earth, NASA’s space telescopes help support the agency's ongoing mission to find, track, and better understand solar system objects.

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    NASA’s Webb Space Telescope Observes Interstellar Comet

    A chart with the X axis labeled RA Offset and the Y axis labeled Decl. Offset. There is a blue diamond and on the middle height, to the left there is a red and yellow dot.

    NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS Aug. 6, with its Near-Infrared Spectrograph instrument. The research team has been analyzing insights from Webb’s data, and a preprint is available online. Webb is one of NASA’s space telescopes observing this comet, together providing more information about its size, physical properties, and chemical makeup. For […]

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    NASA’s New SPHEREx Mission Observes Interstellar Comet

    Against a black background is a red circle, which appears fuzzy and slightly pixelated. At the center is a bright area of yellow, and at the center of that is a bright area of white.

    NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS Aug. 7 to Aug. 15. The SPHEREx team has been analyzing insights from this data, and a research note is available online. The agency’s SPHEREx is one of NASA’s space telescopes observing this comet, together providing […]

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