Interstellar Comet Measured
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Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Video imagery:
- Hubble Space Telescope image of comet 3I/ATLAS: NASA, ESA, David Jewitt (UCLA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
- Infographic, Trajectory of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS: NASA/JPL-Caltech
- ATLAS survey telescope images of comet 3I/ATLAS: ATLAS/University of Hawaii/NASA
- Wide field, ATLAS survey telescope image of comet 3I/ATLAS: ATLAS/University of Hawaii/NASA
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Text appears among images of planets and astronomical discoveries: News from the Universe.
Interstellar Comet Measured August 15, 2025. A photo captures interstellar comet 31 slash Atlas. Text: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured the sharpest picture yet of the interstellar comet 31/ATLAS and narrowed down its size.
Hubble shows that the comet's nucleus, or solid core, could be as large as 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) and no smaller than 1,000 feet (320 meters) across.
The image of comet 31/ATLAS fades away and reveals a diagram of the comet's course that passes through Mars and Jupiter's orbits. Text: Scientists have been able to plot the course the comet will take through the solar system and see that it poses no threat to Earth.
The path and speed of 31/ATLAS tell scientists that it is from another solar system and has been drifting through interstellar space for billions of years.
An Atlas Survey Telescope animation tracks the movements of 31/ATLAS with four orange arrows. Text: 31/ATLAS is passing through our solar system at more than 130,000 miles (220,000 kilometers) per hour, the fastest of the three interstellar objects that have been identified so far.
31/ATLAS should remain visible to ground-based telescopes through September 2025, after which it will be hidden from view in the Sun's glare.
The animation continues to track the movements of 31/ATLAS.
A red inset shows the position of 31/ATLAS in space while the animation continues. Text: The comet will reappear on the other side of the Sun by early December 2025, allowing for renewed observations.
This news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.