- Comet 3I/ATLAS is the third known interstellar object in our solar system
- NASA's Hubble reobserved 3I/ATLAS on Nov 30 at 286 million km from Earth
- ESA's JUICE captured images showing the comet's coma and two distinct tails
Comet 3I/ATLAS, the third known interstellar object to enter our solar system, was recently observed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and other space missions. 3I/ATLAS caused a buzz worldwide, becoming a cosmic celebrity, with all space agencies tirelessly working to get more data about it.
Avi Loeb, a prominent Harvard scientist, has said that the space object might not be naturally occurring and could be an "alien" technology. He also pointed out various anomalies with 3I/ATLAS. However, when NASA released images of 3I/ATLAS, it referred to it as a "comet".
3I/ATLAS is set to make its closest approach to Earth on December 19, 2025. But before that happens, here are some of the latest images taken by different space telescopes:
Image taken by Hubble
Hubble Spac. Telescope reobserved interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS Nov 30.
Photo Credit: NASA/Hubble
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Hubble was one of the first telescopes to observe the interstellar object soon after it was discovered in July, showing a teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust.
Hubble reobserved it on November 30 with its Wide Field Camera 3 instrument when the space object was 286 million kilometres from Earth. The image shows background stars as streaks of light as the telescope was fixated on the fast-moving comet.
The image clearly shows a bright white dot at the centre, which is the nucleus (its main body). The image also shows a coma around the comet, and also a tail. In a blog post on Medium, Loeb explained that the new radius of the glow is about 40,000 kilometres, and its anti-tail extension goes out to about 60,000 kilometres.
However, NASA hasn't yet shared the data set of the latest observation by Hubble. The data would help in determining the composition of the gas plume around the comet.
Image taken by JUICE
The image's centre is a larger, bright white blob with a faint white line stretching towards the top of the frame.
Photo Credit: ESA/Juice/NavCam
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On December 4, the European Space Agency (ESA) shared an image taken by its Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice), taken by its onboard Navigation Camera (NavCam).
The instrument divulged information about how the comet is behaving and its composition. The space agency revealed that they observed the glowing halo of gas surrounding the comet known as its coma, and also, there's a hint of two tails. It added that the comet's 'plasma tail' is made up of electrically charged gas, which stretches out towards the top of the frame. "We may also be able to see a fainter 'dust tail' - made up of tiny solid particles - stretching to the lower left of the frame," ESA explained.
The image was taken on 2 November 2025, two days before the spacecraft's closest approach to the comet, which occurred on November 4 at a distance of about 66 million km.
Notably, the data of the image will be released next year in February, as ESA stated that the "telescope is currently using its main high-gain antenna as a heat shield to protect it from the Sun, leaving its smaller medium-gain antenna to send data back to Earth at a much lower rate".
With the data set, the world will get a clearer picture of the comet. But by then, the
Image taken by amateur astronomers
Image taken by amateur astronomers.
Photo Credit: Facebook/Gerald Rhemann and Michael Jäger
Amateur astronomers, Gerald Rhemann and Michael Jager, captured a stunning image of the comet on December 2, 2025, by a 12-inch telescope in Farm Tivoli, Namibia, with exposures lasting 20,6,6 and 6 minutes.
As per Loeb, "the field of view is 75 by 110 arcminutes corresponding to 6.1 by 9 million kilometres at the distance of 280 million kilometres between 3I/ATLAS and Earth on that date."
