Psyche Observes Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
NASA’s Psyche space probe has acquired new images from 3I/ATLAS, the third object and second comet outside the solar system have been confirmed.
Psyche acquired four observations of 3I/ATLAS in eight hours on September 8 and 9, 2025. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU.
3I/ATLAS was discovered by the ATLAS survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile on July 1, 2025.
The interstellar comet’s orbit is the most dynamically extreme object ever recorded in the solar system.
Also known as C/2025 N1 (ATLAS) and A11pl3Z, 3I/ATLAS reached its closest approach to the Sun on October 30, 2025.
The new images of the comet were captured over eight hours on September 8-9, 2025, when 3I/ATLAS was about 53 million kilometers (33 million miles) from NASA’s Psyche space probe.
“Captured by the mission’s multispectral imager, these observations help us refine the trajectory of 3I/ATLAS,” members of the Psyche team said in a press release.
“The Psyche Multispectral Imaging Instrument includes a pair of identical cameras equipped with filters and telescopic lenses to image the surface of the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in different wavelengths of light.”
“While Comet 3I/ATLAS was far from the spacecraft during these observations, the imager’s sensitivity to sunlight reflected from the comet meant the mission could accurately track the object.”
The new observations also provide more information about 3I/ATLAS’ faint coma, or cloud of gas and dust, surrounding its core – the frozen central core of ice and rock.
“Psyche joins many other NASA missions in determining the comet’s location over time, which helps astronomers better understand its movement as it passes through the solar system,” the researchers said.
“Although the comet poses no threat to Earth, NASA’s space missions help support the agency’s ongoing commitment to finding, tracking and better understanding objects in the solar system.”
