Overview
- JUICE’s JANUS camera captured 3I/ATLAS on November 6, 2025 from about 66 million kilometers away, showing a bright coma, long tail, and hints of jets consistent with typical comet behavior.
- The spacecraft’s JANUS, MAJIS, SWI, PEP, and UVS instruments together collected more than 120 images and complementary spectra, and the newly received datasets are under analysis.
- Data downlink was delayed because JUICE used its high-gain antenna as a heat shield while on the Sun’s far side, with transmission via a lower-rate antenna until last week.
- 3I/ATLAS, the third confirmed interstellar object, passed perihelion in late October 2025 and came within roughly 270 million kilometers of Earth on December 19 before heading back into deep space.
- NASA officials maintain there is no evidence of a technological origin or threat, and a proposal to launch an interceptor in 2035 for a decades-later rendezvous has been criticized as impractical as efforts focus on surveys and rapid-response missions like Rubin and Comet Interceptor.