Overview
- NASA released the visuals during a Nov. 19 event from Goddard, streamed on NASA+, the agency website, YouTube and Amazon Prime with leaders including Amit Kshatriya, Nicky Fox, Shawn Domagal‑Goldman and Tom Statler.
- Datasets include views from Mars assets such as MRO/HiRISE and Perseverance, plus Hubble, JWST and other observatories, capturing the comet’s passage near Mars after its Oct. 29 perihelion.
- Officials noted that Mars provided crucial angles because the comet was effectively behind the Sun for Earth during perihelion, enabling closer-range measurements and improved trajectory refinement.
- Post‑event reporting cites preliminary indicators of atypical composition and great age, findings now under analysis and expected to sharpen as additional calibrated data arrive.
- NASA said the public release was slowed in part by the recent U.S. partial government shutdown; the comet poses no threat to Earth and will pass at roughly 270–273 million kilometers in mid‑December as follow‑up observations continue.