Overview
- ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured 3I/ATLAS as a faint diffuse point near Mars, and Mars Express teams are stacking short exposures and assessing spectral measurements to firm up the detection.
- NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Perseverance rover obtained detections or raw frames, though public releases have been limited during the recent U.S. government shutdown.
- Spectroscopy from space-based observatories, including JWST, indicates a coma dominated by carbon dioxide with additional volatiles such as water and carbon monoxide.
- NASA’s Swift observatory detected OH that signals early water release at large heliocentric distance, with new analysis estimating outgassing near 40 kilograms per second well before close solar approach.
- NASA affirms no impact risk to Earth, with closest approach around 1.6–1.8 astronomical units, as the object nears perihelion on October 29–30 before receding from the inner solar system.