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ESA JUICE captures close-up of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, revealing coma, tail and jets

ESA's Jupiter-bound JUICE mission photographed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, the third confirmed interstellar visitor, producing high-resolution images showing a glowing gas halo, an extended tail and hints of jets erupting from the nucleus. The capture supplements Earth-based spectroscopy and X-ray observations.

Discovered 2026-03-01T15:26:21.785107-08:00 | 2026-03-01T15:26:21.785107-08:00

Briefing

What Hype is tracking

3I/ATLAS is only the third confirmed interstellar object; JUICE’s high-resolution imagery documents coma structure, an extended tail and possible jets, adding a rare close-view dataset to earlier Hubble observations [source:90e3b946-f628-4a00-a90e-3ceed8432378] and NASA infrared detections of water, CO2 and organics [source:3be42cee-1d88-48da-ab10-2f634e480c89].
The image demonstrates significant opportunistic science from a planetary mission en route to Jupiter, providing a complementary data point to X-ray detections of solar-wind interaction [source:d1200c57-c575-4808-aa28-6f7d74c06f8e] and informing ESA’s broader comet science planning, including Comet Interceptor scheduling [source:cbf640c5-ec35-45e8-ba6e-00b88f9afa7e].

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