New Delhi: Between 1 and 7 October, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Mars Express spacecraft by the European Space Agency observed the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas during its close encounter with Mars, as planned . The comet, suspected to be from the boundary between the thick disk and the thin disk of the Milky Way galaxy approached within 30 km of Mars on 3 October. The cameras on the spacecraft were designed to image the bright surface of Mars, and not an interstellar comet. ExoMars TGO captured a series of images showing a fuzzy white dot moving across the field of view, capturing the coma surrounding the nucleus of ice and rock.

Images of 3I/Atlas captured by the ExoMars TGO. (Image Credit: ESA).

The comet is shedding water from a distant star while passing through the

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