Overview
- TESS conducted a special campaign from January 15–22, 2026, capturing 3I/ATLAS on its outbound path and revealing its motion by stacking consecutive frames.
- A safe-mode event tied to the spacecraft’s solar panels halted imaging from January 15–18, creating a gap reflected in a 28-hour sequence with a time jump.
- All observations are now available on the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, supporting studies of subtle brightness variations linked to rotation and activity.
- Hubble concluded observations on January 22 after a window that exploited a near Earth–Sun alignment to measure the opposition surge and probe composition.
- Scientists are preparing for a planned Juno viewing on March 16, when the comet passes near Jupiter’s Hill radius, with the spacecraft expected to observe from about 53.6 million km.