Breaking Update: Here’s a clear explanation of the latest developments related to Breaking News:3I/ATLAS: Jupiter Bound NASA’s Europa Clipper And Parker Solar Probe Snapped The Exocomet; Here’s What It Found– What Just Happened and why it matters right now.
3I/ATLAS, the third-ever interstellar interloper to enter the solar system since 1I/Oumuamua (2017) and 2I/Borisov (2019), was discovered on July 01, 2025 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Warning System (ATLAS). The bizarre behavior of the exocomet came out of a textbook for scientists and stargazers alike. While NASA and other institutions maintained that the object was a mere comet with outlier characteristics, a handful, like Prof. Avi Loeb, a Harvard astrophysicist, speculated 3I/ATLAS may have a technological origin. Loeb enlisted no less than 15 anomalies on the exocomet pertaining to its composition, trajectory, and anti-tail behavior, among others.
All eyes were glued to the interstellar comet on the 19th of December, as 3I/ATLAS made its closest flyby to Earth at 1.79 AU or 270 million kilometers. The initial probe revealed nothing alarming about the comet. However, more data is still awaited. A handful of data obtained ahead of the Earth flyby has been made available by NASA now.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe deployed its WISPR (Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe) instrument at the object between October 18 and November 5, snapping a total of about 10 images. Below is the video compilation of the stitched images (converted into a GIF for this site). The Parker Solar Probe was 195 million kilometers closer to the comet when these images were snapped. The probe was also in motion and had to be rolled on its axis to catch the comet.
The image is still being processed by the scientists. The final image will help researchers unearth substantial data about the 3I/ATLAS comet.
Besides the Parker Solar Probe image, 3I/ATLAS was also captured by the Jupiter-bound Europa Clipper mission in November from a distance of 164 million kilometers. The exocomet was observed over a period of seven hours by the Europa Ultraviolet Spectrograph (Europa-UVS) instrument. The data by the UVS helps understand the chemical composition of the object.
The Europa Clipper mission was launched in October 2024 to probe Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, where it will arrive in April 2030. Meanwhile, by February, 3I/ATLAS will cruise past Jupiter. Will it reveal any final surprises?
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See Also: 3I/ATLAS: Top 10 FAQs From NASA, ESA & ALMA About The Interstellar Comet Ahead Of Its Closest Approach To Earth