NASA to Share Comet 3I/ATLAS Images From Spacecraft, Telescopes

is only the third object ever identified as entering our solar system

NASA • USA – NASA will host a live event at 3 p.m., Wednesday, November 19, to share imagery of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS collected by a number of the agency’s missions. The event will take place at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Comet 3I/ATLAS, discovered by the NASA-funded ATLAS, Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, observatory on July 1, is only the third object ever identified as entering our solar system from elsewhere in the galaxy. While it poses no threat to Earth and will get no closer than 170 million miles to Earth, the comet flew within 19 million miles of Mars in early October.

The event will air on NASA+, the NASA app, the agency’s website and YouTube channel, and Amazon Prime.

Briefing participants include:

• NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya
• Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate
• Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director, Astrophysics Division
• Tom Statler, lead scientist for solar system small bodies

Assets within NASA’s science missions give the United States the unique capability to observe 3I/ATLAS almost the entire time it passes through our celestial neighborhood, and study, with complementary scientific instruments and from different directions, how the comet behaves. These assets include both spacecraft across the solar system, as well as ground-based observatories.

More information on 3I/ATLAS

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