Stunning NASA Gallery: Close Views of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS from Mars to the Sun

NASA has published a large gallery of images and animations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, offering some of the closest and most varied views to date of an object that arrived from beyond our solar system. The release was delayed by the U.S. government shutdown (Oct. 1–Nov. 12), but the full set of observations — taken from spacecraft around Mars, several Sun-observing missions, and even from the surface of Mars — is now available.

Gallery highlights

HiRISE (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter): The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment captured the comet as it passed near Mars in early October. Although closer to Mars than it will get to Earth, the comet was still far away: this HiRISE frame was taken when 3I/ATLAS was roughly 19 million miles (30 million kilometers) from MRO. The bright point is the nucleus and the surrounding haze is the coma — material released as the comet warmed near the Sun.

MAVEN (Ultraviolet): On Sept. 28, the MAVEN orbiter used its Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph to image hydrogen emissions. In the ultraviolet view, blue indicates hydrogen: the dot associated with the comet marks hydrogen emitted by 3I/ATLAS, the bright region marks hydrogen around Mars, and a fainter oval shows background hydrogen flowing through the solar system. Scientists will use these data to better constrain the comet's composition.

PUNCH (GIF): The Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere mission — a fleet of four small satellites that monitor the Sun — produced a GIF from images taken between Sept. 28 and Oct. 10. The comet appears as a small white dot drifting across a field of blurred stars; a bright blob that sweeps past in the animation is Mars.

STEREO-A (colorized visible): The Heliocentric Imager-1 (H1) aboard STEREO-A captured visible-light frames that were colorized to emphasize the comet in the dataset. The resulting pink-hued images help differentiate STEREO-A’s view from other spacecraft imagery.

SOHO (solar observations): The joint ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded 3I/ATLAS between Oct. 15 and Oct. 26 as the comet brightened while approaching perihelion. SOHO remains the longest-serving solar observatory and provided a useful perspective of the comet’s activity near the Sun.

Perseverance (Martian surface): NASA’s Perseverance rover captured a short animation from Jezero Crater on Oct. 4. While modest visually, this clip is notable because it was recorded from the Martian surface while the rover was conducting science at the crater.

Scientific context and origin

Since its discovery in July, some observers speculated 3I/ATLAS might be artificial. However, most astronomers now conclude the object is a natural comet from another star system. NASA emphasized this conclusion during a Nov. 19 livestream.

"This object is a comet," said NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya during the stream. "It looks and behaves like a comet… and all evidence points to it being a comet. But this one came from outside the solar system, which makes it fascinating, exciting and scientifically very important."

Alongside the image release, researchers continue to publish follow-up results: images showing the comet near a distant galaxy with multiple tails, refined orbital solutions from Mars orbiters that tightened the trajectory estimate significantly, and the detection of radio emissions interpreted as natural in origin rather than artificial.

These multi-platform observations — spanning ultraviolet, visible and wide-field solar imaging, plus a Martian surface viewpoint — provide a rare, multi-angle dataset for studying an interstellar comet. Together they will help researchers learn about the object’s composition, activity, and the processes that shape comets arriving from other star systems.