NASA has released images of their third interstellar object, 3I/ATLAS, which was first discovered on July 1, 2025, but the images of this comet were not released until November 19, 2025, because of the government shutdown. NASA were getting images so that they can learn how 3I/ATLAS is different from our solar system’s home-grown comets and get the opportunities for scientists to wonder the difference between other systems than ours. The spacecrafts they used were Hubble Space Telescope, Perseverance Mars rover, MAVEN, and many more.

One of the images that they got was at Mars, During the fall, the comet passed at 19 million miles, where they had the opportunity to observe it. The image was taken by The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, and the Perseverance rover.

The comet was also approaching the sun, but as time past, the comet moved 130 million miles away from the Sun and the Earth. They also confirm that this is a comet with this statement, “We were quick to be able to say, ‘Yep, it definitely behaves like a comet.’ We certainly haven’t seen any techno-signatures or anything from it that would lead us to believe it was anything other than a comet. But the super cool thing is not that it’s exactly like all the comets that we see in our solar system. It’s the differences that are so tantalizing,” stated Nicky Fox, a NASA researcher. They predict that the comet will approach the Earth on December 19 2025when it travels in 170 million miles to our planet. But don’t worry! The comet will not harm us in any way. In Spring of 2026, the comet will pass by Jupiter, and then soon enough the comet will be gone forever.

https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/view-interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-through-nasas-multiple-lenses/https://defensescoop.com/2025/11/20/3i-atlas-nasa-releases-new-images-after-shutdown-delay/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/more-than-a-dozen-nasa-spacecraft-have-laid-eyes-on-interstellar-comet-3iatlas-now-you-can-view-new-images-that-they-captured-180987725/