NASA releases detailed image of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS during Mars flyby
SMRTR summary
A pixelated ball of dust and ice streaking through space at breakneck speed gave NASA scientists their best look yet at an interstellar visitor from beyond our solar system. Three spacecraft stationed around Mars captured unprecedented images of comet 3I/ATLAS as it swept past the Red Planet in October, offering researchers data impossible to gather from Earth. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter tilted away from its usual planetary observations to track the comet at 19 million miles distance, while the MAVEN spacecraft spent ten days analyzing hydrogen signatures in the comet's glowing coma using ultraviolet spectroscopy. "Observations of interstellar objects are still rare enough that we learn something new on every occasion," said Shane Byrne, HiRISE's principal investigator. Even the Perseverance rover on Mars' surface managed to photograph the cosmic wanderer as a faint smudge against star-streaked skies. The chemical fingerprints captured by MAVEN may reveal how this ancient traveler formed in another star system before beginning its lonely journey through interstellar space.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to Interesting Engineering.
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