Over the last week, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) spacecraft Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) were tasked with an unusual request; instead of looking down onto the Red Planet as they usually do, they looked into space. There, they tried to catch a glimpse of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS . The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Team is still analyzing the data, but ESA was able to share a series of images taken by ExoMars TGO. The Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) spotted the comet moving across its field of view.

What we are seeing is the coma, the fuzzy atmosphere of the comet due to sublimation of its surface material as it gets closer to the Sun. It would be impossible for the orbiters

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