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Throughout November 2025, ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) utilized 5 of its science instruments to observe 3I/ATLAS, the 2nd interstellar comet ever identified in our cosmic area. In addition, the probe caught a brand-new picture of the interstellar visitor with its Navigation Camera (NavCam).
This image from ESA’s Juice spacecraft reveals the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Image credit: ESA/ Juice/ NavCam/ CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.
“Though the information from the science instruments will not show up in the world till February 2026, our group could not wait that long,” stated members of the Juice group.
” We chose to attempt downloading simply a quarter of a single NavCam image to see what remained in shop for us.”
“The extremely plainly noticeable comet, surrounded by indications of activity, shocked us. “
” Not just do we plainly see the radiant halo of gas surrounding the comet called its coma, we likewise see a tip of 2 tails.”
“The comet’s ‘plasma tail,’ comprised of electrically charged gas, extends towards the top of the frame.”
“We might likewise have the ability to see a fainter ‘dust tail’– comprised of small strong particles– extending to the lower left of the frame.”
An annotated variation of the Juice picture of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Image credit: ESA/ Juice/ NavCam/ CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.
The image of 3I/ATLAS was handled November 2 throughout Juice’s very first slot for observing the comet.
It was 2 days before Juice’s closest method to the comet, which happened on November 4 at a range of about 66 million km (41 million miles).
“We anticipate to get the information from the 5 clinical instruments turned on throughout the observations– JANUS, MAJIS, UVS, SWI and PEP– on February 18 and 20, 2026,” the scientists stated.
“The hold-up is since Juice is presently utilizing its primary high-gain antenna as a heat guard to secure it from the Sun, leaving its smaller sized medium-gain antenna to send out information back to Earth at a much lower rate.”
Juice was even more from 3I/ATLAS than ESA’s Mars orbiters were back in October, it observed 3I/ATLAS simply after the comet’s closest method to the Sun, suggesting that it was in a more active state.
“We anticipate to see clearer indications of this activity in the information from the science instruments,” the researchers discussed.
“This consists of not just images from JANUS– Juice’s high-resolution optical cam– however likewise spectrometry information from MAJIS and UVS, structure information from SWI, and particle information from PEP.”
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