Mars spacecraft gives closest view yet of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS made its closest pass to Mars on Oct. 3, and Red Planet spacecraft were ready for it.

The NASA -funded ATLAS survey telescope in Chile first observed the comet on July 1, marking the third ever interstellar object to be tracked through our solar system after 1I/`Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov.

As it approaches the Sun, comet 3I/Atlas is no longer visible to Earth's ground-based telescopes , leaving it up to spacecraft to keep eyes on this interstellar wanderer.

Two European Space Agency (ESA) orbiters, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Mars Express used cameras to watch for the comet passing about 18.5 million miles (30 million km) away.

According to the ESA , mission scientists weren’t sure how well these images would turn out with a dim target so far away. Normal