Comet ATLAS Nears Earth as NASA Releases Striking New Images

NASA released a new collection of high-resolution images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, a rare visitor from beyond the solar system whose approach has ignited intense scientific interest around the world. 

The object, confirmed in July to be interstellar after its speed and trajectory proved incompatible with the Sun’s gravitational pull, is racing toward its closest pass by Earth on December 19. Although the flyby will be completely safe, astronomers view the event as a fleeting opportunity to study a relic that predates Earth itself.

Travelling at nearly 137,000 miles per hour, ATLAS is following a hyperbolic path that will carry it back into the depths of the Milky Way once it leaves the solar system. Researchers believe it originated around a distant star in the direction of Sagittarius before being violently expelled during an ancient cosmic event. 

Despite extensive observation, scientists still do not have a precise estimate of its size. Early Hubble measurements suggest a nucleus somewhere between 1,400 feet and 3.5 miles wide, though the European Space Agency notes the figures remain preliminary and may change as new images are analyzed.

Interstellar comets are among the rarest objects ever detected. Only two have been confirmed before ATLAS, ʻOumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019, each sparking waves of speculation about their nature and origins. 

NASA stresses that ATLAS, like its predecessors, is entirely natural, formed from planetary material around another star and carrying chemical signatures that could help reveal how distant planetary systems evolve. Research teams across the globe are racing to decode the composition of its gases, dust, and vaporizing ices before it slips beyond observational reach.

The latest images, released on November 19, offer the clearest view yet of the comet’s glowing nucleus, shifting brightness, and interactions with the solar wind. They show the development of its tail and the dynamic changes occurring as its ices begin to sublimate near the Sun. Several NASA missions have captured the comet from widely different vantage points across the solar system. 

The Lucy spacecraft photographed ATLAS from 240 million miles away as it approached Mars, revealing a bright halo of gas and a tail stretching across a sizable portion of the frame. SOHO, the long-running solar observatory mission, recorded it as a faint luminous point in mid-October. The HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged the comet from about 30 million kilometers, adding detailed measurements of its inner coma. 

NASA’s Psyche mission collected multi-spectrum data in early September, helping refine both the comet’s trajectory and the properties of its gas cloud. MAVEN captured ultraviolet imagery showing hydrogen emissions from ATLAS, Mars, and the interplanetary medium, while the PUNCH mission recorded a sequence of distant observations that revealed a short tail and the comet’s steady drift against elongated star trails.

For the public, the most pressing question, whether the comet poses any threat, has been answered clearly by NASA: it does not. ATLAS will pass a vast 170 million miles from Earth, more than twice the distance between Earth and the Sun, leaving no possibility of impact or disruption. What makes this encounter extraordinary is not danger but rarity. 

The comet is following an open, escape trajectory and will never return. Once it completes its December flyby, it will fade into the outer darkness, headed back toward the interstellar void from which it emerged.

For scientists, this brief window may be the only chance in our lifetime to study such a pristine, ancient traveler. For everyone else, it is a reminder that the solar system—usually so familiar—is still open to surprises arriving from the farthest corners of the galaxy.